There are a huge number of moss species in the world, and they are found almost everywhere, anywhere, in any forest. These plants appeared so long ago that it’s hard to imagine! And at the same time, the fact that mosses have practically not changed over the past eras is doubly surprising.
Interesting facts about mosses
- Moss of one kind or another is found on all continents, including even Antarctica.
- In the Far North, reindeer moss, which is also moss, is one of the main sources of food for deer, who extract it from under a layer of snow (interesting facts about deer).
- Moss has no roots, but despite this, it clings extremely tightly to any surface with the help of outgrowths designed for this purpose.
- Moss absorbs water and nutrients dissolved in it with its entire surface.
- For a normal existence, mosses need moisture, so moss is not found in deserts and semi-deserts.
- Moss can reproduce in two ways — sexual and asexual. In the second case, spores are involved.
- Ancient mosses on our planet are only algae. The first mosses on Earth appeared 350-400 million years ago, becoming the first plants on land.
- There are about 20 thousand different types of mosses in the world.
- Moss never blooms.
- Cold is not terrible for mosses. Having obtained a sample of moss in Antarctica that had frozen over 1,500 years ago, scientists thawed it and placed it in an incubator. As a result, the moss came back to life.
- The greatest variety of mosses can be found in moist rainforests and tropical jungles.
- It is thanks to mosses that peat deposits form over time in swamps.
- In ancient China, some types of mosses were used for decorative purposes.