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Buxbaumia piperi
With reading break giving a pause from classes, I went up to Keats Island for several days to search for bryophytes. Finally, on a century-old log of a centuries-old cedar, I found this tiny rare moss: Buxbaumia. Most of the time, this plant creeps along as microscopic filaments searching for a suitable place to reproduce. Once it finds the perfect spot, it produces an alternate generation, the sporophyte. This quickly becomes visible as it develops over the winter, reaching 1 cm tall and producing thousands of spores which it will release over the summer to drift on the wind in search of a new home to establish.
Keats Island, BC
Buxbaumia piperi
Habitat: Western Redcedar log, Southeast facing, in coastal Douglas-fir forest near sealevel.
Buxbaumia piperi
With reading break giving a pause from classes, I went up to Keats Island for several days to search for bryophytes. Finally, on a century-old log of a centuries-old cedar, I found this tiny rare moss: Buxbaumia. Most of the time, this plant creeps along as microscopic filaments searching for a suitable place to reproduce. Once it finds the perfect spot, it produces an alternate generation, the sporophyte. This quickly becomes visible as it develops over the winter, reaching 1 cm tall and producing thousands of spores which it will release over the summer to drift on the wind in search of a new home to establish.
Keats Island, BC
Buxbaumia piperi
Habitat: Western Redcedar log, Southeast facing, in coastal Douglas-fir forest near sealevel.