# Flowering moss???



## Byron (Aug 20, 2009)

The "flowers" in the attached photos are allegedly from Java Moss, though all botanists I have found say mosses do not flower, so I am assuming this may be some other plant that resembles a moss. Does anyone know what the attached photo shows?

Another aquarist with these "flowers" has asked me for advice on what it is, he assums his JM is flowering. My searching did track down one thread here:
http://board.fishchannel.com/Topic207893-4-1.aspx#bm208108
which is where I got the two attached photos (he says his "flowers" are identical) but there is no indication as to what this is.

Byron.


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

Looks like moss anchors.. (roots)


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

However it's really hard to tell from that pic...


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Those are moss anchors, usually they're put out by the moss to attach itself to objects. When moss goes untrimmed with no objects to attach to, it tries to attach to the water, which is what you're seeing.

To stop it, simply trim off those parts, and it will spread in a different way. I have a lot of java and taiwan moss in one of my tanks and they have attached to the glass.


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## Byron (Aug 20, 2009)

Thank you both. Is this common with all species of aquarium moss? I've got quite a lot of it covering wood in several tanks and have never noticed anything like this.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

It's common on species of moss that anchor themselves to things.
I find it happens most often if you don't trim your moss and don't fertilize.


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## Byron (Aug 20, 2009)

mordalphus said:


> It's common on species of moss that anchor themselves to things.
> I find it happens most often if you don't trim your moss and don't fertilize.


Thanks again, I certainly appreciate the information. B.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Moss don't have flowers. But I think most have antheridia in their terrestrial form...kinda flower like.


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

I have Irish moss(Chondrus crispus) in my garden and it gets little white flowers on it in the spring. Here is a picture:


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

ua hua said:


> I have Irish moss(Chondrus crispus) in my garden and it gets little white flowers on it in the spring. Here is a picture:



Irish moss is not a true moss. It's a vascular plant. 

Also that's the wrong name... 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagina_subulata is what you have.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Moss anchors? C'mon guys this is a planted aquarium forum lets use the real therm.

They're rhizoids.

As to mosses flowering, they don't. Yet, they have something similar to a flower called a sporophyte which is a stock that produces spores and that then germinate into the gametophyte which continues the life cycle reproducing both sexually and asexually.

Maybe I'm a bit obsessed...

-Andrew


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## daworldisblack (Jan 12, 2012)

Rhizoids?! Whew! I've been going crazy trimming mine thinking it was red brush algae!


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## ElBoltonero (Jan 18, 2012)

A Hill said:


> Yet, they have something similar to a flower called a sporophyte which is a stock that produces spores and that then germinate into the gametophyte


This is a family board, sir, watch your mouth. That's vulgar.

/sarcasm
/teehee


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