INTRODUCTORY
Plants are divided into two groups: Vascular and non-vascular.
Vascular
Non-Vascular
Non-vascular plants do not have
tubes running through them.
Vascular plants have tubes running
through them. These tubes carry water
and nutrients through the plant. The
tubes are in the leaves, stems, and
roots.
Some types of vascular plants are trees,
grass, and ferns.
Any plant that has flowers is a vascular
plant.
Any plant that has cones is a vascular
plant.
Vascular plants reproduce with seeds.
Water soaks into non-vascular
plants and then moves from one
cell to another. This is how they
pass food through the plant
Non-vascular plants must live in
moist areas or in water.
They do not grow to be very tall.
Moss is a type of non-vascular
plant.
Non-vascular plants do not have
roots, leaves, or stems.
Some non-vascular plants look like
they have leaves, but these are
not actual leaves.
Non-vascular plants reproduce
with spores.
Paragraph 1
From five feet above cushions of moss look alike but down on my hands and knees I can see the
intricacies of the inch- tall moss.
Carpets of moss are like miniature forests that provide habitat for other plants, insects, worms, frogs,
fungus and other small mammals, but moss is vastly different from the trees in a forest.
Moss is a plant, however the structure of moss varies from what we typically think of for a plant.
A tree has xylem and phloem tubes that carry water and nutrients between the roots and leaves.
These tubes characterize trees as vascular plants. Mosses don’t have xylem, phloem or any other tubes
which makes them non-vascular plants (bryophytes).
Paragraph 2
The outer structure of moss is also different.
Trees have roots, leaves, stems, flowers, fruit or seeds.
Mosses have rhizoids, spores and leaf-like structures. Moss is only a few inches tall at most because it
lacks the lignin-fortified tissue required to support tall plants.
Like roots, the rhizoids (small, branched filaments) anchor the moss to the substrate it grows on,
whether the north side of trees, rocks, soil or concrete. However, rhizoids don’t absorb water and
nutrients like roots, they only anchor the moss.
Instead, the leaf-like structures absorb moisture.
The “leaves” are only one cell thick and absorb rain water as it flows over the plant and as water
droplets from dew or waterfalls land on the plant. Numerous plants create a carpet of moss which
produces a spongy quality that enables all the plants to absorb and retain water.
Without a root system to spread out to obtain water, moss is limited to where there is sufficient
moisture.
Paragraph 3
More than 12,000 species of moss grow from Arctic regions to the tropics and from around hot springs
to the bottom of lakes.
Moss needs sunlight to create food but it is often found on the north side of trees to avoid the intense
sunlight that can dry it out. If a moss dries out it won’t die. Moss needs moisture to live but not survive.
Some mosses can be dried out for up to 20 years and spring back to life once moisture is present.
Moisture is needed for moss to reproduce. Reproduction is vastly different from trees with flowers,
seeds and fruit. Mosses reproduce using spores like ferns and mushrooms. Spores are similar to seeds
but they are single-celled and more primitive than a seed.
During certain times of the year, upon close inspection you can see the carpet of moss sprouting tiny
stalks with little capsules on the end. These capsules often hold more than 50,000 spores each.
When the spores are fully developed, the capsule opens and the spores are dispersed.
Like a seed, a spore has to land in the ideal location to germinate. However, some spores are viable for
up to 40 years waiting for the right conditions.
Moss isn’t solely dependent on spores to spread.
Moss can spread by sending out new shoots in the spring from last year’s plants or by fragmentation.
If a piece of moss is broken off and moved by wind or water, a new plant can start from that piece if
enough moisture is present.
In ideal conditions like on the rocks next to a waterfall or in the damp reaches of old-growth cedar
groves, vast carpets of moss can form over time into intricate miniature forests that we just have to get
down on our hands and knees to see.