Happy New Year Celebrations!
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
Field of Science
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Change of address1 year ago in Variety of Life
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Change of address1 year ago in Catalogue of Organisms
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Earth Day: Pogo and our responsibility1 year ago in Doc Madhattan
Berry Go Round #12
This botanical carnival has almost arrived full circle with the twelfth edition posted at Foothills Fancies. Check out all of the green plants to help you make it through the snowiness of winter. We are due for 5-9 inches here in Connecticut today. You may not know, but if you peak beneath the snow you will find that the mosses are in a green suspended animation. They are still alive and will resume growth in the spring. Just be sure to cover them back up, because the snow acts as insulation.
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
Bryo Emails
I don't know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with my email. I love being able to efficiently communicate with colleagues. I hate SPAM. I love being able to keep in touch with far away friends. I hate that email can eat up hours out of an otherwise productive day. I love getting updates on a scientific journal's table of contents, so that I don't have to remember to check them. I hate chain-mail that says this must be forwarded lest bad luck will befall you. You get the picture and may have a similar relationship with your email. However it is a necessary evil for many people including me that must be dealt with on a daily basis.
Another item in the love of email column is hearing from people who have read and enjoyed my blog. That is always a bright spot to my day! However I have to admit that my responses to blog emails tend to be shuffled to the bottom of my email list. It can take a couple of weeks for me to make it around to composing a response, especially at crunch times during the semester. So if you are one of those people waiting to hear back from me, I apologize for the delay, but know that you are not forgotten and are on my list.
Speaking of my tardy responses, a few weeks ago I heard from Annette, who has a website about plants (in German) and a more specific site about mosses and liverworts (in German and English). For the bryophytes, she has posted 2 or more color photos for each of the species covered on the website. The photos are really great! They range from broad habit shots down to some higher magnification photos where clusters of antheridia can be seen. There is also an alphabetical list of the species that she has photographed with internal links to the photos. Overall I think that it is a nicely composed website and I would recommend that you check it out to enjoy the beautiful bryophyte photography that Annette has on display.
Another item in the love of email column is hearing from people who have read and enjoyed my blog. That is always a bright spot to my day! However I have to admit that my responses to blog emails tend to be shuffled to the bottom of my email list. It can take a couple of weeks for me to make it around to composing a response, especially at crunch times during the semester. So if you are one of those people waiting to hear back from me, I apologize for the delay, but know that you are not forgotten and are on my list.
Speaking of my tardy responses, a few weeks ago I heard from Annette, who has a website about plants (in German) and a more specific site about mosses and liverworts (in German and English). For the bryophytes, she has posted 2 or more color photos for each of the species covered on the website. The photos are really great! They range from broad habit shots down to some higher magnification photos where clusters of antheridia can be seen. There is also an alphabetical list of the species that she has photographed with internal links to the photos. Overall I think that it is a nicely composed website and I would recommend that you check it out to enjoy the beautiful bryophyte photography that Annette has on display.
Berry Go Round #11
The eleventh edition of Berry Go Round has been posted at Catalogue of Organisms. I especially enjoyed the post about the stinking Ginkgo seeds. I had some of them in a savory egg custard in Japan and they are really nice to eat. It was quite the pleasant surprise. I think that the way they are prepared neutralizes the butyric acid, which causes the stinkiness. I would definitely recommend giving them a try in their cooked form.
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
Moss Life Cycle 3
The spores land on a suitable substrate (either soil, tree bark or rocks, depending on the species) and grow to form a filamentous mat, called protonema (7 o'clock). These protonema filaments have been compared to both algae and rhizoid filaments that attach bryophytes to their substrate.
Each protonema mat can produce many leafy buds that will develop into grown mossy plants (9 o'clock). Thus you can have many individual gametophyte stems in the same patch that are genetically identical to each other. Think clones from your favorite sci-fi movie. All that is needed is a single spore to produce an entire mossy patch.
And there we have it. We have made it all the way through the moss life cycle, hopefully without to much brain strain and confusion. If you have any questions about the life cycle feel free to drop me a line in the comment section.
The Moss Life Cycle 2
The last we heard form our moss life cycle we had arrived at fertilization. This process produces a diploid sporophyte that has two sets of chromosomes per cell. The sporophyte starts out as a small embryo (12 o'clock photo) that grows (2 o'clock photo) and grows (4 o'clock photo). The sporophyte consists of a stalk that elevates the capsule, also called a sporangium, "high" into the air. (Height is relative. The stalk is only a few centimeters tall, but it is much taller than the green leafy gametophyte.)
Inside the capsule, spores (6 o'clock) are produced. They are formed by the cell division process of meiosis. This process takes diploid sporophyte cells and produces haploid spores. Basically it takes the number of chromosomes in a parent cell and decreases them by half in the child cells. These spores leave the capsule flying on the wind and are the part of the moss life cycle that is the main dispersal unit.
They land on a suitable place to grow and... (stay tuned for the continuing adventures of the moss life cycle.)
Inside the capsule, spores (6 o'clock) are produced. They are formed by the cell division process of meiosis. This process takes diploid sporophyte cells and produces haploid spores. Basically it takes the number of chromosomes in a parent cell and decreases them by half in the child cells. These spores leave the capsule flying on the wind and are the part of the moss life cycle that is the main dispersal unit.
They land on a suitable place to grow and... (stay tuned for the continuing adventures of the moss life cycle.)
Bryonet moves to the Blogosphere
Bryonet is an email discussion group operated by the International Association of Bryologists. This listserve facilitates communication among professional bryologists and is a forum for posing questions about bryophytes to a wider audience.
Now this listserve has stepped into the blogosphere and can be found at http://internationalassociationofbryologists.blogspot.com/. The most recent list of posts center on the latest bryophyte classification and a discussion of monophyly.
Stay tuned for upcoming discussions and announcements.
Now this listserve has stepped into the blogosphere and can be found at http://internationalassociationofbryologists.blogspot.com/. The most recent list of posts center on the latest bryophyte classification and a discussion of monophyly.
Stay tuned for upcoming discussions and announcements.
Mosses and the Masses
Ethnobryology is the scientific study of the relationships between people and bryophytes. Some of the uses that people have for mosses and their bryophyte pals include: pollution indicators, decoration in horticulture, fuel, and medicinal purposes. The article that we read last week in laboratory group focused on both folk naming of mosses and their uses in traditional cultures.
Harris, Eric S. J. 2008 Ethnobryology: traditional uses and folk classifications of bryophytes. Bryologist 111(2):169-217.
The discussion of the naming of mosses was really interesting. Dr. Harris points out that many small organisms tend to be lumped together into a group and all called 'mosses'. These include lichens, red algae, lycopods, and the flowering plant Spanish moss. A good point that he makes is that people operate on a large scale from centimeters to kilometers. Mosses are small and the features that are typically used to tell species apart are super tiny and difficult or impossible to see without a microscope. So its small, green, hard to tell apart, then people historically called it a 'moss', whether on not the organisms were actually close relatives.
Dr. Harris identified 150 species with traditional ethnobryological uses. The largest category was medicinal (41%), with uses ranging from treating heart conditions to regrowing hair. Many of these treatments are used and were determined from Traditional Chinese Medicine. In addition to medicinal mosses are used for chinking spaces in the walls of houses, decoration, cleaning, packing, and bedding. This article makes it apparent that traditional cultures are much more connected to the plants that surround them and use them in their everyday lives.
Despite all these uses, most people in the USA probably do not have much personal use of mosses in their daily lives. Besides studying them professionally, the only time I think that I use them is when peat moss comes mixed in the potting soil that I buy for my houseplants. If you have any other uses for mosses in your everyday life feel free to share them in the comments section.
Harris, Eric S. J. 2008 Ethnobryology: traditional uses and folk classifications of bryophytes. Bryologist 111(2):169-217.The discussion of the naming of mosses was really interesting. Dr. Harris points out that many small organisms tend to be lumped together into a group and all called 'mosses'. These include lichens, red algae, lycopods, and the flowering plant Spanish moss. A good point that he makes is that people operate on a large scale from centimeters to kilometers. Mosses are small and the features that are typically used to tell species apart are super tiny and difficult or impossible to see without a microscope. So its small, green, hard to tell apart, then people historically called it a 'moss', whether on not the organisms were actually close relatives.
Dr. Harris identified 150 species with traditional ethnobryological uses. The largest category was medicinal (41%), with uses ranging from treating heart conditions to regrowing hair. Many of these treatments are used and were determined from Traditional Chinese Medicine. In addition to medicinal mosses are used for chinking spaces in the walls of houses, decoration, cleaning, packing, and bedding. This article makes it apparent that traditional cultures are much more connected to the plants that surround them and use them in their everyday lives.
Despite all these uses, most people in the USA probably do not have much personal use of mosses in their daily lives. Besides studying them professionally, the only time I think that I use them is when peat moss comes mixed in the potting soil that I buy for my houseplants. If you have any other uses for mosses in your everyday life feel free to share them in the comments section.
The Moss Life Cycle 1
If you remember anything about plants from biology class you might recall learning about life cycles. Typically this is a challenging and dreaded concept for students to learn. Life cycles involve a lot of new terminology and there are different cycles for every group of plants.
Personally I really like life cycles and I think that they are critical to understanding plant biology. The life cycle of mosses is something that I think about on a daily basis, but I know that is a little out of the ordinary. Below, I introduce the moss life cycle using the moss species that I study, Funaria hygrometrica, so that those of you who aren't as intimately involved with plants would have a good summary of how it all works.
I am going to break this topic down into a few posts since it is a lot of information to digest at once.
Starting on the far left (9 o'clock) is an image of the leafy green gametophyte (aka. the moss plant). This portion of the life cycle is haploid, meaning that it has one set of chromosomes per cell. It is different from the large photosynthetic portion of most plants which is diploid with two sets per cell. It is photosynthetic, capturing sunlight water and carbon dioxide to make sugars.
The function of the gametophyte in the life cycle is to make gametangia. Gametangia (antheridia- male & archegonia - female) are the sexual reproductive structures. Thus the gametophyte is the sexual stage of the life cycle.
At 11 o'clock are two images of these sexual reproductive organs that are produced by the leafy gametophyte. To the far left are the antheridia and below toward the right is an archegonium.
The antheridia are the dark brown structures that each produce hundreds of sperm. The single thin structure is an archegonium which contains only one egg per. The sperm and egg cells are also called gametes.
So we have gametophytes (mossy plant) that make gametangia (antheridia & archegonia) which produce gametes (sperm & egg). All of these structures are haploid and are produced by mitosis. In this process of cell division there is no change in the number of chromosomes per cell .
Personally I really like life cycles and I think that they are critical to understanding plant biology. The life cycle of mosses is something that I think about on a daily basis, but I know that is a little out of the ordinary. Below, I introduce the moss life cycle using the moss species that I study, Funaria hygrometrica, so that those of you who aren't as intimately involved with plants would have a good summary of how it all works.
I am going to break this topic down into a few posts since it is a lot of information to digest at once.
Starting on the far left (9 o'clock) is an image of the leafy green gametophyte (aka. the moss plant). This portion of the life cycle is haploid, meaning that it has one set of chromosomes per cell. It is different from the large photosynthetic portion of most plants which is diploid with two sets per cell. It is photosynthetic, capturing sunlight water and carbon dioxide to make sugars.
The function of the gametophyte in the life cycle is to make gametangia. Gametangia (antheridia- male & archegonia - female) are the sexual reproductive structures. Thus the gametophyte is the sexual stage of the life cycle.
At 11 o'clock are two images of these sexual reproductive organs that are produced by the leafy gametophyte. To the far left are the antheridia and below toward the right is an archegonium.
The antheridia are the dark brown structures that each produce hundreds of sperm. The single thin structure is an archegonium which contains only one egg per. The sperm and egg cells are also called gametes.
So we have gametophytes (mossy plant) that make gametangia (antheridia & archegonia) which produce gametes (sperm & egg). All of these structures are haploid and are produced by mitosis. In this process of cell division there is no change in the number of chromosomes per cell .
If you have any tips or comments on learing about the life cycle of mosses, feel free to share in the comments section. Stay tuned for the next installment of the life cycle.
Berry Go Round #10
The tenth edition of Berry Go Round has been posted at 10,000 Birds. Berry Go Round is a monthly blog carnival all about plants. Enjoy!
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.
Mosses in a Magazine
An article came out this month in the New Life Journal about gardening with mosses. This article was written by of Mountain Moss in North Carolina.
The article has some good moss biology tucked among the gardening tips. She discusses the fact that mosses do not have roots and instead have rhizoids to attach them to the soil. Also she touches on the fact that mosses do not have xylem cells to move water inside their plant body.
Another interesting tidbit that she shares is that mosses can even be seen in the 5000 year old gardens in Kyoto, Japan. I linked to the article that she cited, because I was interested to see if they were talking about the moss temple (Saiho-ji). I visited this temple while I was in Japan this past summer and I was excited to hear what they had to say about it. (Click here for a link to my post about the Saiho-ji temple in Kyoto.)
I was surprised to discover that the Smithsonian Magazine article that she cited did not mention the Saiho-ji temple. Instead it focused on the Ryoan-ji temple (the temple of the peaceful dragon). The focal point of this temple is a zen rock garden that has a number of rocks and mosses surrounded by raked stones.
This is one of the temples in Kyoto that I visited in addition to the Saiho-ji temple. There were not nearly as many mosses as the moss temple, but being that it was a zen aesthetic, less is more. The zen rock garden was very peaceful looking place and my photos capture its true essence.
However being there was quite a different exprience. All the visitiors to the garden sit on a large wooden porch overlooking the area shown here in the photos. You might think that everyone would be sitting quietly meditating as they stare at the stones. If that is what you imagined then you would be wrong. It is more like 40 foreigners sitting on the porch chatting loudly, some of them talking on their cell phones, while the zen stones stare back in dismay.
I was really surprised that they didn't have some sort of talking rules to encourage a meditative atmosphere. Oh well, I will just have to enjoy the meditative experience from my silent photos. It's a little sad that they are better than the actual experience, but I am glad to have gone and given it a try.
The article has some good moss biology tucked among the gardening tips. She discusses the fact that mosses do not have roots and instead have rhizoids to attach them to the soil. Also she touches on the fact that mosses do not have xylem cells to move water inside their plant body.
Another interesting tidbit that she shares is that mosses can even be seen in the 5000 year old gardens in Kyoto, Japan. I linked to the article that she cited, because I was interested to see if they were talking about the moss temple (Saiho-ji). I visited this temple while I was in Japan this past summer and I was excited to hear what they had to say about it. (Click here for a link to my post about the Saiho-ji temple in Kyoto.)
I was surprised to discover that the Smithsonian Magazine article that she cited did not mention the Saiho-ji temple. Instead it focused on the Ryoan-ji temple (the temple of the peaceful dragon). The focal point of this temple is a zen rock garden that has a number of rocks and mosses surrounded by raked stones.
This is one of the temples in Kyoto that I visited in addition to the Saiho-ji temple. There were not nearly as many mosses as the moss temple, but being that it was a zen aesthetic, less is more. The zen rock garden was very peaceful looking place and my photos capture its true essence.
However being there was quite a different exprience. All the visitiors to the garden sit on a large wooden porch overlooking the area shown here in the photos. You might think that everyone would be sitting quietly meditating as they stare at the stones. If that is what you imagined then you would be wrong. It is more like 40 foreigners sitting on the porch chatting loudly, some of them talking on their cell phones, while the zen stones stare back in dismay.
I was really surprised that they didn't have some sort of talking rules to encourage a meditative atmosphere. Oh well, I will just have to enjoy the meditative experience from my silent photos. It's a little sad that they are better than the actual experience, but I am glad to have gone and given it a try.
Some More Mosses from Japan
While in Japan I traveled to the small town of Nozawa Onsen. It is about an hour north of Nagano, via train and then bus. Nozawa is nestled in the mountains and is famous for the many onsen (hot springs) that dot the village. I hear that it is also a great place to ski and we saw many ski lifts heading up into the surrounding mountains. While walking around town we visited a shrine that was surrounded by moss.
However, I did not collect any mosses. I am not sure what the karma impact might be from collecting moss from the grounds of a shrine. So I just took some pictures instead.
The photo to the right is a member of the Orthotricaceae. All of the little tan/brown structures are the sporophytes. The Orthotricaceae are recognized by their short sporophytes with upright capsules. Typically they grow on tree bark or rocks and have dark green gametophytes that can sometimes appear black when dry.
Sculptures on the grounds of the shrine were covered in mosses!
These a a couple of shots of some Fissidens sp. Members of this genus have a really gorgeous morphology! The leaves do not spiral around the stem as in most mosses. In Fissidens they have a distichous leaf arrangement, meaning that they are positioned 180 degrees opposite each other on the stem. It is the same leaf arrangement that you see in Iris plants. This distintictive pattern of leaves makes mosses in the genus Fissidens stand out from other species in the field.
However, I did not collect any mosses. I am not sure what the karma impact might be from collecting moss from the grounds of a shrine. So I just took some pictures instead.
The photo to the right is a member of the Orthotricaceae. All of the little tan/brown structures are the sporophytes. The Orthotricaceae are recognized by their short sporophytes with upright capsules. Typically they grow on tree bark or rocks and have dark green gametophytes that can sometimes appear black when dry.
Sculptures on the grounds of the shrine were covered in mosses!
These a a couple of shots of some Fissidens sp. Members of this genus have a really gorgeous morphology! The leaves do not spiral around the stem as in most mosses. In Fissidens they have a distichous leaf arrangement, meaning that they are positioned 180 degrees opposite each other on the stem. It is the same leaf arrangement that you see in Iris plants. This distintictive pattern of leaves makes mosses in the genus Fissidens stand out from other species in the field.
Examining Moss Filaments: Protonema & Rhizoids
Every week members of the Goffinet Laboratory group meet to discuss a research journal article about bryophytes. The papers that we read range from morphological to molecular and may relate to either mosses, hornworts, or liverworts, all of which we study in the laboratory. Last week's paper focused on moss protonema and rhizoids.
Protonema are unicellular filaments of haploid/gametophyte tissue. In the moss life cycle a spore germinates to produce filamentous protonema that then develop into leafy gametophytes. At right is a photograph of the protonema of Funaria hygrometrica.
Pressel, S., Ligrone, R. and J. G. Duckett. 2008. Cellular Differentiation in Moss Protonemata: A Morphological and Experimental Study. Annals of Botany 102:227-245.
This research paper focuses on three types of bryophyte filaments: chloronema and caulonema (both types of protonema) and rhizoids. They define rhizoids as filaments that are produced only by the mature leafy gametophyte plants. They are often pigmented brown and function to attach the gametophyte to the substrate (soil, tree bark, or rock that they are growing on).
They had a number of goals for their research, but I am not going to go into all of them. The one that I found the most interesting was that they examined 200 moss species and determined the cellular changes that occur during differentiation of the caulonema and rhizoid filaments. (Differentiation is the process by which cells acquire all of the characteristics that they will have at maturity.) You may ask why just describe a maturation process inside of the cells. Well as the authors mention (and I wholeheartedly agree), it is important to describe the sequence of events that occur in these filaments because it lays the foundation for future experiments. Researchers have to know how structures develop normally, so that they have a control/baseline to compare to experiments.
Additionally, the paper is full of great images. There are light microscopy photos zoomed in to the point that you can see the nucleus inside of the cell. Some of the other images illustrate a feature that I had not heard of before. The rhizoids produce a mucilage sheath (i.e. slime) that covers the entire outside of the cell wall. The remainder of the images are transmission electron micrographs that show all sorts of cellular structures. You can see mitochondria, chloroplasts, golgi bodies and nuclei, just to name a few. In order to see these structures some serious magnification is needed. These organelles are probably magnified 10,000-50,000X. I think that it is just really fabulous that we can see all of these tiny biological features inside of the cells!
Protonema are unicellular filaments of haploid/gametophyte tissue. In the moss life cycle a spore germinates to produce filamentous protonema that then develop into leafy gametophytes. At right is a photograph of the protonema of Funaria hygrometrica.
Pressel, S., Ligrone, R. and J. G. Duckett. 2008. Cellular Differentiation in Moss Protonemata: A Morphological and Experimental Study. Annals of Botany 102:227-245.This research paper focuses on three types of bryophyte filaments: chloronema and caulonema (both types of protonema) and rhizoids. They define rhizoids as filaments that are produced only by the mature leafy gametophyte plants. They are often pigmented brown and function to attach the gametophyte to the substrate (soil, tree bark, or rock that they are growing on).
They had a number of goals for their research, but I am not going to go into all of them. The one that I found the most interesting was that they examined 200 moss species and determined the cellular changes that occur during differentiation of the caulonema and rhizoid filaments. (Differentiation is the process by which cells acquire all of the characteristics that they will have at maturity.) You may ask why just describe a maturation process inside of the cells. Well as the authors mention (and I wholeheartedly agree), it is important to describe the sequence of events that occur in these filaments because it lays the foundation for future experiments. Researchers have to know how structures develop normally, so that they have a control/baseline to compare to experiments.
Additionally, the paper is full of great images. There are light microscopy photos zoomed in to the point that you can see the nucleus inside of the cell. Some of the other images illustrate a feature that I had not heard of before. The rhizoids produce a mucilage sheath (i.e. slime) that covers the entire outside of the cell wall. The remainder of the images are transmission electron micrographs that show all sorts of cellular structures. You can see mitochondria, chloroplasts, golgi bodies and nuclei, just to name a few. In order to see these structures some serious magnification is needed. These organelles are probably magnified 10,000-50,000X. I think that it is just really fabulous that we can see all of these tiny biological features inside of the cells!
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