On Sunday, I got to join the mosses group along with some other Brooklynites and explore the variety of species of bryophytes in the New York Botanical Garden. My group was given a guidebook and some small magnifying lenses to help identify different species. The magnifying lens was about a quarter in circumference and we were able to use it to look closely at the distinguishing details of the mosses.

Even though our guide informed us that the NYBG has one of the largest–if not the largest–collections of plants in New York, it was still quite fascinating to learn that there could exist more than three species of mosses in a single square inch of land. The moss specialist for our group explained that there are slight differences in temperature, substrate, and even moisture over a given square foot of land; because of this, the species of mosses that live on one side of that square foot can be entirely different from those on the other side.

To the untrained eye, the mosses will look almost identical; however, with the help of the guidebook and our moss specialist, we were able to identify over eight different species.

My favorite moss of the day was the Marchantia polymorpha. This moss looks just like a little forest! The guide informed us that the palm-like structures aid this organism in reproducing. The base is where new plants sprout. There were many other varieties of mosses, (all of which have their own methods of reproducing and maintaining the species diversity in New York) but there was just not enough time to fully study all of. Even if the biodiversity in the larger community is still declining, it is at least being preserved in this area of New York; and I am glad that I was able to participate in examining the biodiversity–or at least for that of mosses–at this year’s Bioblitz.