One thing about living in a rainforest when the rainy season is in full swing is that there is a tiny little world of green that is amazing if you take a close look. Sure, the trees can be impressive, but they’re so…in your face and obvious.
Now…look on the bare branches of some of those trees and you’ll see the really interesting stuff….moss!
A carpet of bright green blankets many surfaces and, if you look even closer, you can find tiny little bodies rising above that green carpet. Moss has two distinct lifecycle stages, a life history referred to as alteration of generations. One phase is the carpet of green; this is the dominant gametophyte phase and has only one set of chromosomes (is haploid). The other, the little bulbs rising atop a thin stalk above the green below, is called the sporophyte and has two sets of chromosomes (is diploid). The neat thing is that the sporophyte is parasitic on the gametophyte, relying on it to provide food and water.
Nature is so cool.
