Andreaeobryopsida

That title is not the cat walking on the keyboard after I've typed my name. No, rather it is a class of non vascular plants, which contain mosses, like those found in the order Andreaeopsida.

I've just recently learned a fun little mnemonic to remember the division of evolution:
"Dutch king Phillip came over for green spinach" or :

Binomial nomenclature is when we name things with two Latin words. These words are the  Genus and the species. Species  being the most specialised branch of the tree of life, whereas kingdoms can be seen more as the trunk of the family tree. The three main kingdoms are Animals, Plants and Fungi. 

When I mention class and order in the first paragraph, I'm talking about a branch that forks off around the middle of the time line of evolution. Mosses are an early evolutionary plant, and consist of a rudimentary life form, so it doesn't include a vascular system ie: a way to get water up from the ground and into high branches. Because of this, they are confined to the ground and wet areas, so they can spread their spores by wind or water. These guys have it figured out, and have been reproducing in this niche since 480 million years ago when they came on to the scene in the Ordovician era.

Any who, the point is they've been around a long time and have specialised niches and lots of biodiversity. I became drawn to this group of plants because they share my name, but also because mosses are super cool. There's so many mosses living and thriving in the coastal wet winters, its been a joy to get to know them. Here are some more of my favourites:

Now this isn't a moss, it's usnea lichen. Which is even cooler than moss because it's a mutual relationship between not only a fungus and algae, but also a yeast! They got together at a party millions of years ago and decided to just all move in with each other and live a little polyamourous life. And it's been working out great for them! So great, that they found a way to literally eat rock. They're an invaluable pioneer species to turn rocky wastes to liveable conditions, THEN the mosses can move in and settle down into the neighbourhood.
In another post I'll talk about this guy's old man's beard is medicinal magic!

Three different mosses. they can be hard to differentiate.
There could be black tufted moss, or a hair cap moss, maybe young hanging moss. 

perhaps Oregon beaked moss. I just love the way it curls and coiled up a tree trunk,
 They make the alders look like they're wearing lime green leg warmers. Classy look.

Step moss is very cool, providing dry habitat for little flies, and in turn little spiders.
 I observed the minutiae of their world for a while one day.

wavy-leaved cotton moss is one of my favourites.
They look like clumps of bright worms just hanging out in a pile on a log.

If you stuck through that nerd fest, I commend you! I like to nerd out about plants fairly often! Please get used to it :) and enjoy! I hope you learned something about mosses or lichens, and that next time you see mosses you take a closer look at their intricacy.





References, bitches:

MacKinnon, A., & Pojar, J. (2016). Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska.

Spribille, T. et al. (2016, July 21). Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens.  retrieved from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/07/20/science.aaf8287