• Tuesday-What'sUP May 21 - 01:57 pm

Traveling down the Gratiot River Road, Melanie Hakala Rossi spotted this spring growth of moss beginning and had to snap a few shots of it, since she said the evening sun made it look like glowing embers there on the ground. My first thought looking at the color of the moss from the distance, was that these photos were taken in the fall, but not at all, that's just the hue this moss takes on, as it begins sprouting in the spring.

Does anyone have an idea what type of moss it might be? I was unsuccessful when I tried researching it on the Internet and am hoping that someone else might be able to enlighten us about it. Thanks in advance!

The first 2 pictures were confusing until you got to the last 2. Very interesting! Love the color!

Praying for the people in Oklahoma :-(

Beautiful photos, thank you Melanie.

Nice shots! It looks like "red-stemmed" moss.

It's great to see these pictures showing Spring is coming around for all you Yoopers!

What we're seeing as red stems are actually the female reproduction parts of the moss... I think this one might be Dicranum scoparium, or brook moss. Unfortunately, without having a microscope (or being Janice Glime, the world's leading expert in Bryophytes), I couldn't say for certain!

I love the photos because so many people never stop to notice the awesome colors of nature which surround us.

Nice pictures of early spring growth. I wonder if it doesn't get its color from the high iron content in the soil. I noticed 2 years ago when I vacationed in Copper Harbor, that even a lot of the rocks are reddish in color due to the iron in them.

Please keep those poor tornado victims in your thoughts/prayers.

Also not having a microscope or being Janice
Glime, and having taken her class over 30 years ago, my guess is that this one might be Ceratadon purpureus. One of the most commonly widespread yet more vexing to identify of the bryophytes. In Mosses of the Great Lake Forrest it is said to have been created to weary the bryologist!

Does anybody have a stone to roll over the moss? (lol)