Field of Science

Mosses in Malaysia

Well I sure had a whirl-wind adventure traveling around southeast asia for 2.5 weeks. The itenary was as follows. I flew from New York to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to northern Borneo (then back), Kuala Lumpur to Java (then back), I stayed put in Kuala Lumpur for a few days, and then home to Connecticut.

My favorite part of the trip was Northern Borneo. We were in Sabah, Malaysia near the town of Sandakan. We roomed at the Sepilok Jungle Resort, and I thought that it was a nice place to stay despite the poor review it was given in the most recent Lonely Planet Malaysia. We visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center and the Rainforest Discovery Centre, both within walking distance of our lodging. With the rainy season upon us, we didn't get to explore aroung the rainforest nearly as much as I would have liked. Here are some of the mossy photos from the adventures.

All available surfaces were covered in mosses including tree trunks, fallen logs and hanging vines.


Here we have some mosses in the Calymperaceae. They are a very common family in the Pacific Tropics. Their identifying feature are the clusters of gemmae at the tips of the leaves.


 Some tiny critters like this ant were hiding among the mossy cover.



A few of the species that I saw had some tiny sporophytes rising above the leafy gametophytes.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Top photo on the left looks like Arthrocormus schimperi, a leucobryoid Calymperaceae. The species is recognisable from the 3-rank foliation and easily broken leaves. I have a photo of the leaf cross-section to show the many cell layers. I could pass on to you, if you like to have a look.

    BC Ho

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would love to see a leaf cross-section of this plant. Thanks! Probably sending it to my university address would be easiest.

    Cheers - Jessica

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, off topic a bit but was wondering in anyone knows: Can you grow these types of moss on the ground (on sand or soil), in a home-garden...

    And if so, can anyone tell me how to start...

    I am in Malaysia and have easy access to the above species of moss. An online resource said that I should blend the moss in a blender and mix it with sugar and beer. But what about the leafier species. Surely this wont work...

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. HI :)

    I'm Malaysian but i have no idea about the name of the mosses i find here...
    Would be nice if i can learn more about them and their names...
    Currently am doing some miniature gardening with mosses

    Is it possible to email you some photos of the mosses ???
    Btw, my email is cheahsweeaun@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete

Markup Key:
- <b>bold</b> = bold
- <i>italic</i> = italic
- <a href="http://www.fieldofscience.com/">FoS</a> = FoS