Questing for Fern Gametophytes (Part 2)

While looking for fern gametophytes I could not help but notice this really cool moss peristome. For a review of peristome teeth check out these posts. I put the sporophyte under a dissecting microscope and then placed my camera up to the lens to take the picture, hence the grainy quality. This capsule was quite small about 2mm wide and 3mm long. An awesome part of this photo is that you can see all the green spores coming out of the capsule and sticking to the inner ring of teeth (the endostome).

Tomorrow we are leaving Las Cruces and are heading to La Selva biological station. It is located in northern Costa Rica in an area of tropical wet forests. We will spend the entire day tomorrow on the bus traveling to reach the station. I am looking forward to the change of scenery and all the new mosses and ferns that we will see. The part that I am not looking forward to is the abundance of snakes that live at La Selva. Check out all the serpentes that they have on their reptile list! I am not a fan of snakes. They make me panic and they like to hang out in the nooks and crannies with the mosses. Keep your fingers crossed that I do not run into any.