#adminanswers

[mossappreciator]

moss volcano!

(my pic, location northern europe)

thank you SO much for this excellent mosscano, tumblr user homo666

[mossappreciator]

do you know any moss facts

MOSS FACT: if you jaywalk and squat down in the median to take a picture of moss people will generally not be very happy with you

…anyway a fact that is probably more relevant to your interests is that their leaves tend to be only one cell thick. I know this isn’t anything new but it still blows my mind how big plant cells can get!!!

[mossappreciator]

just found this blog and I'm lichen what I'm seeing

thanks! hope you like what you read, too. i’d like to think i’m a pretty fungi

[mossappreciator]

Anything brick covered in moss > anything else

honestly i'm rather a fan of when moss covers basically anything. i can't really think think of a situation in which finding an object covered in moss would be unwelcome

[mossappreciator]

(sorry if I already asked this, couldn't remember if I sent it or not)

Do you take submissions?

Yes I do! You can send a photo ask, use the submit page on the blog itself, or even just DM me your post and I’ll reblog it.

[mossappreciator]

Your blog is absolutely lovely. I was wondering if you had any info on leaning to identify different types of moss? I looked into it a little bit ago but I had no idea where to start 💚

Thank you for the compliment! This comes up here somewhat regularly and I wish I could be more specific, but I can make some recommendations. IDing moss is an art that requires very direct and in-depth analysis. Most people will know what you mean when you describe something a “pillow” moss or a “star” moss, but it turns out that some very different species look quite a lot like each other if you’re looking at them undisturbed, with the naked eye. Experts conducting field surveys bring magnifying glasses and if necessary will take a very small sample in order to view the moss from it’s “root.” I am no such expert, which is why my photography never comes with any type of guess at the species.

The outside of a clump of moss can give you a pretty good idea of what it could be, at least enough to be decently confident in the genus. There’s still plenty of value in making an educated guess! I highly recommend going to a library to look for local guides if you have access to one. That narrows it down a lot and can point you in the right direction when you’re looking for populations to ID locally.

Other than that, I know of a few specific types of moss used in aquascaping and that’s about it. I don’t make much of an attempt to identify them because when I’m taking pictures I’m definitely thinking more about the photo than the subject. I am an artist and not much of a scientist lol

[mossappreciator]

Seing all this glorous moss beauty drives my cold, dead heart out of it's grave, but knowing the actual names of the mosses i see woul complete my bliss

the thing about moss is that it’s nearly impossible to identify just by sight! experts (which I am not!) use magnifying lenses and take very small samples to observe what the moss looks like from the inside to get more specific information. it’s a bit like fungi, you really gotta know what you’re looking for to be able to confidently name it. I need to double check that I tagged it this way but there should be a #microphotography tag with some really nice shots of magnified samples. they’re good examples of just how different mosses can be from each other, and still look fairly similar at the surface! moss has many marvelous and microscopic mysteries

[mossappreciator]

Moss is perfect and I love you

I love you too! :D