As I walk around the arboretum, I notice that many of the trees are covered with a green, magic carpet. Upon closer inspection, I quickly realized that there are many shapes, sizes, colors and textures to these plants. This opened up another world of life — mosses and liverworts.
After a storm I found a big clump that had fallen out of a tree. As I started down the road of identifying it, I narrowed it down to a liverwort. I’m still working on honing my observation skills, so I’ll wait on determining which genus or species.
This clump was interesting because there were spiders, centipedes and small insects living in it. On the underside was a maze of what look liked roots. I later read that these aren’t true roots, they are rhizoids. They are more about anchoring the plant than transporting nutrients. Long story short is that the more I read, the more there was to read. The diversity of life is unbelievably fascinating.
