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Mosses Grow:
Impoverishment "of the soil, and most particularly nitrogen deficency, is one of the most common causes of moss in lawns, and fortunately the most easily remedied. If you have ever noticed where certain mosses grow naturally, on old house roofs, along uncared for fences, on waste lots and even in the crevices of brick and flagstone paving, among other infertile places, you will realize that at least some of these lowly plants thrive where there is not enough nourishment to support other plants, not even weeds. It is not so much that mosses prefer impoverished soils but at least they can get along in them and in more fertile ones they are unable to survive the competition of more vigorous plants, such as lawn grasses.Almost at the rock's center and highest point, a 6-year-old white pine seedling (Pinus strobus) stretches 10 inches in the air. The roots are lost in a large clump of reindeer moss for there is as yet no soil on the rock. The little white pine has dwarfed naturally, each year's candles (new shoots) not any larger than an inch. But the largest number of plants upon the rock are the mosses, small green plants that usually prefer shade, and lichens, strange plants that are a combination of green algae and colorless fungi. Mosses need shade because they have poorly developed water distribution systems and the hot sun can dry them out before water can reach thirsty cells. Hair-cap moss will grow in open fields, but there grass provides some protection, and the dews of morning furnish needed water. Because mosses are subject to rapid loss of moisture, they "fold-up" their leaves when dry, markedly changing their appearance. But when water once again reaches the plant, individual cells quickly swell and the mosses revert to normal size. Mosses reproduce by releasing eggs and sperm that form seedlike spores.
Pacific Coast Coniferous Forest.—Along the humid, cool northwest coast of America from Alaska southeast to northern California is the greatest stand of timber on earth, the densest, tallest, most magnificent, and most valuable. Parts of this forest have been classed as a coniferous rain forest or temperate rain forest, having annual precipitation exceeding 100 inches. These giant evergreens grow to 200 to 250 feet high and 5 to 8 feet in trunk diameter, a few larger. Most have rough thick bark and narrow pointed crowns which form a closed canopy. The closely spaced trees bear mosses, ferns, and other air plants (epiphytes) on trunk and branches. Shrubs are common in the undergrowth, and mosses and ferns are well displayed.
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