Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 3 Dicranales
This is a rather characteristic order of acrocarpous mosses recognised by the generally very long, narrow leaves.
Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 1 Polytrichales
The Polytrichales is a characteristic order of acrocarpous mosses with robust, narrow leaves and a transparent sheathing base and with longitudinal lamellae on upper (adaxial) surface
Dr M’s Spring term ID test: bryophytes
Recently, Dr M ran a Spring term plant ID test for his MSc students at University of Reading and has posted the results of Part 1 (vascular plants). Here Dr M posts Part 2 of the test: the bryophytes – the group of lower plants which includes the mosses and liverworts. There were ten species in total: three species to be identified without books
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Moss (and Lichen) in Nature photo competition
Dr M is particularly fond of mosses and was delighted to find on the British Bryological Society Facebook page a link to this Moss in Nature Competition from Digital Photography Review.
Marvellous Mosses!
Autumn brings eXtreme botanical challenges of the bryophyte variety: mosses flourish and become especially luxuriant in the wet autumnal weather and it is an ideal time to renew and refresh our acquaintance with these marvellous little plants!
Dr M’s botanical postcard from the English Lake District
Dr M spent a long weekend in the English Lake District by Wastwater, the deepest lake on the Lake District and just down the road from Scafell Pike which reaches around 1000 m and is shown here hidden in cloud.
How many vascular plant species are there in Britain?
Why not try to answer this question before reading on! By “plants” Dr M means green plants (containing chlorophyll) and this includes vascular plants (flowering plants, conifers, ferns, horsetails and clubmosses), bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) and green algae. NB The Plant Kingdom does NOT include the fungi and lichens. Dr M focuses on vascular plants here and will deal with
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Dr M’s upcoming videos
Dr M Goes Wild about video for plant identification and just for fun! Upcoming videos include “the hand lens”, “marvellous mosses”, “liking lichens” and “the top 10 plant families”. Check the course page for information about Dr Ms course “Making plant ID videos”.