Everything you need to know at a glance

Systematics and appearance at a glance

Researchers have been working with bryology, the science of mosses, since the 18th century. Century. To this day, new, fascinating details are still being discovered about the tiny plants, which make their despicable association with weeds ad absurdum. The following profile gives interesting facts about deciduous moss:

• Hardwood moss (Bryophyta) as the largest group within the moss plant division
• More than 15,000 known species with worldwide distribution
• Growth on earth (terrestrial), on trees (epiphytic) and on stones (lithophytic)
• Heights of 1 mm to 20 cm with leafy stems
• Growth form stiffly upright, pillow-forming (acrocarp) or branched, lawn-forming (pleurocarp)
• Rootless anchoring in the subsoil via single-celled strands, without parasitic function
• Absorption of nutrients and water through rain
• Propagation by means of a generation change between sexual and asexual

Only the sub-genus of peat moss, from which plant substrates emerge, or sphagnum for the cultivation of orchids is of economic importance.

Ingenious survival strategies - that's why fighting is so delicate

Due to the lack of roots, deciduous moss is poorly competitive. It therefore looks specifically for locations that are not colonized by other plants or where they are weak. So the green ones dive Moss coverings in places that we don't like at all, such as on paved paths, walls, terraces or in the lawn. Combating it is so problematic because leaf moss has developed these survival strategies over millions of years:

• The smallest amounts of rain cover the need for water and nutrients
• Dried up moss can withstand heat of up to 110 degrees and cold to - 196 degrees Celsius
• In many species, photosynthesis is still possible at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius

These and other abilities enable leaf moss and other mosses to sprout again, even after years of rest, suppression and control.