manini

I found this moss a while ago while hiking on the North shore of Haleiwa in an aquifer fully submerged. This photo is about 6 months of growth. It reminds me of a christmas moss/taiwan moss. what do you guys think.


'Haleiwa' moss

miremonster

I'd say it's some sort of Vesicularia, but that's one of the fortunate cases where the origin is known, and Prof. B.C. Tan (Singapore) could make a positive ID. Or some bryologist in the U.S. knowing the mosses of Hawaii. Being a moss record from the wild, the specimen could even be of scientific value.

manini

I've met him once at an AGA event. By any chance you have his email information? Please pm me if you do. Thanks.

miremonster

I don't find a personal email address, but there's contact information on the site of the institution: http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/dna/people/details/28
Or perhaps Dr. David C. Duffy or Mashuri Waite could be interested too: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/hpicesu/techr/153/v153.pdf

DerekFF

Does look a lot like christmas moss

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miremonster

I agree, but Vesicularia montagnei is apparently not recorded from Hawaii. Apart from that, it seems that also species others than montagnei float around as "Xmas moss".
Here a moss checklist of Hawaii:
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pdf/trop-bryo.pdf
=> The known Vesicularia species from Hawaii are V. inflectens, V. perviridis and V. graminicolor. At least these names are unknown to the hobby, but who knows if these species are already spread incognito as aquarium mosses.
But I'm not sure if the Haleiwa moss is a Vesicularia at all.

manini

Thanks Heiko. I will try and contact Prof. D.C Tan. Hopefully he can help me identify this moss. I will also check to see if Dr. David C. Duffy or Mashuri Waite could help out.

I first though it was a type of christmas moss also, but I doubted that it was just because where I found it. Haleiwa is a rural town and the aquifer was found in an area where it was fairly difficult to get to. This should be interesting.