Moss

     Chopped, fallen logs litter the earth, beneath the trunks of the leafless trees that remain planted in the ground.  Around the fallen logs is a sea of leaf-caked mud, from which thorns and leafy vines grow.  Though many of the individual plants appear lifeless and void of color, a green film of moss covers the fallen logs, and grows in clumps around the trees and across the forest floor.  The moss provides the forest with a soft, green glow, appearing even brighter in the sunlight.  From a distance, the moss, which tends to grow in puddles, or damp patches of ground, looks rather like algae, as if it would feel slimy.  But closer observation reveals that this is not at all the case, as the moss is actually made up of small sprouts, which look rather like extremely tiny, bright-green, pine trees.  These small structures are known as  phyllids. However, the moss did not all look the same.  There was soft, damp moss covering some of the rotted logs, and this moss appeared more reddish-green, and had more the shape of tiny flowers, rather than the pine-like appearance of some of the other moss.  Covering some of the drier logs was bright green, grass-like moss, which had what appeared to be small, red, hair-like seeds.  This moss was not as damp as the moss that grew all over the ground, and it felt really fuzzy and soft.  Upon digging a small clump of moss from a tree stump, I found that the moss was attached to the trees and the earth by a very tiny root system.  These root-like structures are actually not considered root systems, but are something known as rhizoids.  Rhizoids, though having a similar function as roots, are not considered to be true roots, as they are very small and are meant to anchor the moss to tree trunks and other surfaces.

     Moss (Bryopsida) is a class of plants, consisting of tiny, spore-producing plants.  These are within a group known as Bryophytes, which have rhizoids instead of roots.  There are about 12,000 different species of moss.  Moss can be commonly found growing In the earth, on trees, and many other surfaces in damp areas, usually in forests or other areas with much shade.  Many species of moss are highly beneficial to the ecosystem, in that they add nutrients to the soil and absorb water, which is used by larger plants.  Moss plants have different methods of reproduction depending on the generation of moss.  Gametophytes produce a sperm and an egg, to produce sporophytes.  These sporophytes live on the previous generation of moss, giving off spores, which then grow to become gametophytes.  The fuzzy moss that could be found growing on the trees must have had sporophytes, which were the long red hair-like structures growing from the shorter green moss.

Sources:

http://www.britannica.com/plant/moss-plant

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep14c.htm