I found this liverwort growing up against some landscaping bricks at my house. I’ve taken thousands of pictures of moss, but this is the only wild liverwort I’ve seen
I don’t know if saying something is cool moves beyond the appropriate dullness, but… it’s cool
I like taking pictures of moss and it’s relatives because it forces you to slow down and look at very small details, and there’s a whole world of complexity right under our feet, you just have to look for it
I think I have some of this growing in my little moss garden. Will take a pic and post it when I can.
Oh I’d love to see the whole garden if you don’t mind!
How’d you go about creating the right conditions?
I think this might be liverwort.
As for creating the right conditions, we had an evergreen bush in the spot where the big red rock is. Moss likes acidic soil, which the evergreen would have helped foster. When we removed that bush and put it in the rock I had a small patch of moss volunteer. I’ve hand weeded yellow wood sorrel, yellow nutsedge, bittercress, and crabgrass to keep it clear. And kept leaf litter off of it to prevent mold. Other than that I make sure it gets watered to keep it spreading even though it is drought tolerant along with the surrounding stonecrop.
These are from today and with the last month or so. The red and dead looking stuff are sporophytes.
This is a picture from 3/3/2024 when it was just starting to really spread.
And 25 days later on 3/28/2024. You can see the sporophytes here when they’re new and green.
That is spectacular, and makes me super pumped to do that at my new house
Oh, I should have mentioned that the majority of it is growing on rubber mulch, which I found interesting when it started.
There is also a lot growing in the gap I clear next to the rocks bordering the stonecrop and that is growing on bare earth. You can see that in the 2nd photo, to the right of the row of rocks.
Something else to note is that this is on the north side of the house and gets full sun from midday on.