Noosa residents are discovering mosses and liverworts in moist shady places in their gardens.  Continuing rain has produced ideal conditions for the growth of these simple plants. 

Known collectively as Bryophytes, they were among the earliest land plants.  With no flowers, fruit or seeds they need moisture to grow and reproduce. 

Unlike ferns and flowering plants, mosses and liverworts have no special channels for carrying moisture and nutrients around their bodies.  Instead this moves from cell to cell in a simpler way that only works successfully in the presence of external moisture, hence their love of damp corners, saturated logs and rocks.

Mosses and liverworts spread by shedding tiny packets of cells called spores.  Their design has been so successful that they are continue as part of our native flora, living alongside the more recently evolved flowering plants. 

Liverworts tend to be flat and leathery and produce their spores in unlidded cup-shaped structures on their flat leaf-like surfaces where raindrops scatter the spores to produce new plants. 

Mosses, on the other hand, usually produce their spores in a closed beak-like capsule attached to a long stalk.  They have leaf-like scales on stem-like structures and tend to grow together in clumps giving the appearance of miniature forests.

Despite their delicate appearance, some of these simple plants have the ability to survive for long periods with little moisture, but spring back into life when conditions change.  Some species have inspired the common name of ‘resurrection plant’ because of their dramatic recovery.  This ability allows them to act as pioneers after catastrophic events and Bryophyte beds can become nurseries for seedling plants.

Often overlooked, they are an important part of our Biosphere.

Mosses enjoying a damp spot in a Noosa garden