It posed perfectly and stood still…

A moss-covered tree stump fills the foreground, its flat cut surface forming a small raised platform in a shaded woodland. The stump runs horizontally across the image, with its vertical sides dropping into darker, damp wood below. Across the top, a mixed community of mosses forms a dense, bright green covering. Most of the surface is a low, spreading carpet (mat growth form), but this is interrupted by a slightly raised mound where shoots grow more upright, forming a small cushion or tuft. This area appears a lighter, more vivid green, with fine, radiating leaf tips giving a soft, star-like texture. Towards the edges and down the sides of the stump, the growth becomes looser and more irregular, with some shoots trailing downward in response to gravity and moisture, creating a transition from compact surface growth to hanging strands. Ivy (Hedera helix) weaves through the scene. Several lobed, glossy leaves (a few centimetres across) rise above the moss surface, while thin stems run diagonally across the stump and down its sides, providing a sense of scale and direction. The moss colony spans roughly 20–30 cm across the top. Individual shoots are only a few millimetres tall, contributing to an overall soft, textured surface rather than distinct visible leaves at this distance. The background is softly out of focus, showing greens and browns of deciduous woodland, suggesting a cool, humid environment where moisture lingers — conditions that support a diverse bryophyte community.

A very mossy stump.

Devon on Friday.

#moss #bryophytes

Close-up of a glossy black bloody-nosed beetle resting on a bright green, unfurling frond of Hart’s-tongue fern. The fern frond is curled at the tip, with fine hairs along its edge. The beetle’s rounded body contrasts sharply with the vivid green, while the soft-focus woodland background adds depth. The beetle appears still, emphasising its flightless nature.

Bloody-nosed beetle on Hart’s-tongue fern.
Nowhere else to plod to and it cannot fly.

Timarcha tenebricosa on Asplenium scolopendrium.

#beetles #insects #ferns #nature

Old-growth log covered with moss in deep forest, snow patches in the background.

The sound of raindrops on new leaves tells me that spring has arrived. So, I know that the snow is melting and the mosspeople are waking up in the depths of the forest. Soon, there will be a deep carpet of green in the wild places to lie down in and dream of the spirits of the wild. #witchsky

Ancient Low Weald woodland in the Wiston Estate. West Sussex. The parasitic lichen Diploschistes muscorum. It normally parasitises Cladonia Pixie Cup lichens, then it moves on to mosses. Here it is parasitising the liverwort Frullania dilatata. I have never seen it lunching on a liverwort before.

This large tree surrounded by moss-covered stones has outlived the farm buildings it once stood next to in St Johns in the Vale, Cumbria.
#ThickTrunkTuesday

Red stem not Common Tamarisk according to BBS site, it has great photos and shows lookalikes, handy for cross-ref. Purple box link “View distribution from the BBS Atlas” helps shortlist to see the most likely ones (IMHO 1200+) in each area.

www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/learning/spe...

Your description of where it grows is really useful BengI. Thanks!

A tiny reddish liverwort with tear drop shaped leaves growing over rotting wood. Some bright green coloured Dicranum moss gives good perspective as one of its leaves is as big as some smaller branches of the Rustwort.

Rustwort - Nowellia curvifolia

This plant is as common as it is tiny. It's on a lot of fallen, debarked conifer logs in humid areas but isn't eye catching until you're already looking closely.

A small piece of moss held between fingertips. Orthotrichum striatum - green tufts with pointed leaves. Capsules are distinctively smooth with 16 outer peristome teeth

A small piece of moss held between fingertips. Orthotrichum tenellum - tufts of green pointed leaves. Long capsules with a ring of stomata around them (needs a backlit microscope to view).

During the @kentfieldclub.bsky.social trip to Parsonage Wood, Stephen Lemon found lots of unusual Orthotrichum moss on a single coppiced tree! A few of these were O. striatum (distinctively smooth capsules) & O. tenellum (long capsules with a ring of stomata) @bbsbryology.bsky.social

A brown patch of leafy liverwort sprawling over beech tree bark - Frullania dilatata

Overlapping, round, pale green leaves of a liverwort forming short branches over the surface of cracked beech tree bark - Radula complanata

A patch of pale green liverwort with forked strap-like branches on beech tree bark - Metzgeria furcata

A pale, sap green liverwort forming a patch of tiny blobs, like a jumbled string of minute beads, over the surface of tree bark - Cololejeunea minutissima

Enjoyed seeing plenty of liverworts at Parsonage Wood with Stephen Lemon during the @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting. Those pictured include Frullania dilatata, Radula complanata, Metzgeria furcata & Cololejeunea minutissima. @bbsbryology.bsky.social

Ulota crispa species complex (PL nastroszek kędzierzawy, EN crisped pincushion). Zielonka Forest, Wielkopolska (western Poland).
#mosses #mchy #Bryophyta #bryology

A panorama photograph of a "tunnel" of small trees and shrubs on a trail in British Columbia. The small trees and shrubs are mostly Hazelnut, but there are other species as well. Fog has drifted through the scene, and the trail is lined with moss and ferns.

#SilentSunday

Sphaerocarpos cf europaeus, a strange looking liverwort growing on bare disturbed soil in extensively managed arable fields, endangered across Europe 🌿

Lanky Moss (Rhytidiadelphus loreus), also known as Little Shaggy-moss.

A close view of liverworts on a branch in Devon woodland. Pale green, forked ribbons of Metzgeria furcata spread loosely across the surface, interwoven with the darker, tightly overlapping, scale-like shoots of Frullania dilatata, forming a textured patch in dappled light.

Thank-you.
Here are some liverworts for you from this week...

The foliose liverwort GONGYLANTHUS ERICETORUM, found this week on soil shadowed by Erica arborea, E. scoparia and Arbutus unedo, near the scattered village of Panedes (Girona).

Easily recognizable in the field by the opposite leaves and the habitat where she grows.

#bryophytes #liverworts

"Mosses in all their glory. But we found rare lichens too
Groovy felt lichen NT
Pale crater lichen VU
Elm lichen EN
Knopp lichen not nationally threatened but uncommon in southern Sweden"

fick också se äppelmossa idag!

Scapania undulata

Chiloscyphus polyanthos with sporophytes!

Bartramia pomiformis, literally cutest moss on earth with extremely round spore capsules

Fissidens pusillus

some mosses from today’s excursion!

i also finally got to see Schistostega pennata, whose protonema reflects light so it ”glows” in the dark (extremely hard to take pictures of though…)

At SWT reserve, Hermand Birchwood, West Lothian
@scotwildlife.bsky.social yesterday. Was photographing what I think is Rustwort, Cephalozia/Nowellia curvifolia (a liverwort) when photobombed by a Devil's Coach-horse, Ocypus olens.
@bbsbryology.bsky.social @colsocbi.bsky.social

Lovely finds…

Sphagnum capillifolium with a view #moss #bryophyte

Sphagnum rubellum red + orange and S. strictum #moss #bryophyte

Thanks Ben, I was hoping someone would confirm or let me know if I was wrong.

A dense patch of moss (bryophyte) grows on a sloping soil bank at the upper edge of a woodland. The colony forms upright tufts, each made of slender green shoots standing one or two centimetres tall. At the tips of the shoots, the leaves narrow into fine, pale hairpoints (hyaline tips), whuch are bent away from the vertical and give the moss a frosted or silvery appearance, especially where the light catches them. Small water droplets cling to some of the hairpoints and stems. The shoots are closely packed, creating a soft, spiky texture across the surface rather than a flat mat. In places, older growth at the base appears darker and more compact, while newer shoots rise brighter green above. The moss sits among small fragments of soil, leaf litter, and tiny twigs, with a woody stem running across part of the scene. The colony spreads irregularly across the bank, following the contours of the ground.

A dense patch of moss (bryophyte) grows on a sloping soil bank at the upper edge of a woodland. The colony forms upright tufts, each made of slender green shoots standing one or two centimetres tall. At the tips of the shoots, the leaves narrow into fine, pale hairpoints (hyaline tips), whuch are bent away from the vertical and give the moss a frosted or silvery appearance, especially where the light catches them. Small water droplets cling to some of the hairpoints and stems. The shoots are closely packed, creating a soft, spiky texture across the surface rather than a flat mat. In places, older growth at the base appears darker and more compact, while newer shoots rise brighter green above. The moss sits among small fragments of soil, leaf litter, and tiny twigs, with a woody stem running across part of the scene. The colony spreads irregularly across the bank, following the contours of the ground.

I think this might be Heath Star-moss (Campylopus introflexus), growing on a soil bank.

At the top edge of a Devon woodland today.

tinyurl.com/campylopus-i...

#moss #bryophytes

A small hollow in the flat top of a stone wall contains a tiny colony of moss (bryophyte), now wet after rain. From the green base, slender red stalks (setae) rise, each carrying an elongated capsule (sporophyte). Clear raindrops cling to the capsules and stalks, some forming large teardrop shapes that partially envelop the capsules, magnifying their deep red colour inside. The colony sits in a shallow depression surrounded by rough, pale stone, only a few centimetres across. The droplets catch the light and appear bright and glass-like, giving the small group of capsules a jewel-like appearance.

Yesterday's oasis in the top of the wall caught some precious raindrops.

Devon today.

#moss #bryophytes

Sphagnum russowii (red) and S. girgensohnii #moss #bryophyte

I wonder if you mean one of those two red leaves at the top and bottom of your photo? I think those are seed leaves, the first to appear on germination. They are usually simplified in shape. They drop off when the plant gets going so are not usually present in a mature plant…