Sphagnum Moss - Mt Tomah, NSW, Australia
S 33° 32.320 E 150° 25.400
56H E 260740 N 6286020
Near the Bog Garden is a Flora Sign about the Sphagnum Moss that grows in the Blue Mountains.
Waymark Code: WMYNJW
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 07/03/2018
Views: 0
The sign is set up like a ring-binder, and the section on the Sphagnum Moss reads:
Sphagnum Moss
"Sphagnum moss plays a critical role in our Bog Garden. Each plant can hold up to 20 times its dry weight of water.
"Each Sphagnum moss plant grows as a fluffy, yellow-green tuft of leaves packed spirally on short branches atop a dead but not decayed thread-like stem, with no roots. The plants sometimes produce rust-coloured capsules that release spores.
"Like all mosses, sphagnums are 'non-vascular' plants, because they lack specialised structures for the transport of water and nutrients through their tissues. Inside the plants, water is stored in dead leaf cells, while leaf cells with chlorophyll produce food. Large cells on the outer stem also retain water and may be home to algae and unicellular animals.
"In the Blue Mountains sphagnum moss is confined to a very few areas with seasonally stable water tables. The most common species in this area is Sphagnum cristatum.
"Sphagnum moss acidifies its surroundings and may form peat. Sphagnum peatlands occur in small areas of the sub-alpine zones along the southeastern Australian mainland coast and they are abundant in Tasmania.
"Worldwide concern about damage to sphagnum bogs due to harvesting and changed weather patterns has led to research on glasshouse production, Our plants were propagated from a small collection made on the Newnes Plateau in New South Wales."
Visited: 1148, Thursday, 8 February, 2018