It is far too easy to get lost in the moment when you are around enjoyable people who love nature as much as you do. So much so, that I have to remember to force myself to take pictures! Jeron, the new ecologist for the north-western district of Missouri State Parks, came out on the hike, so it was great to finally meet him. Levi and Sabina joined whom I met last week at the MPF Bioblitz, and it was fun to hang with them again. And…I always love putting faces to names of folks that have bought the book, and this time I got to meet Matt! This hike was originally scheduled for Saturday, but due to the chance of rain and thunderstorms, I postponed it to Sunday. It was a good call, and the weather was significantly cooler and quite pleasant on Sunday.

Aside from learning about bryophytes, we also had the opportunity to learn more about fungi as Levi is an avid mycologist.

Because I couldn’t remember which trail to take when we came to a “V” (in my defense, I have only ever hiked this trail from the other direction, so I never knew that there was a split in the trail here to have to choose from), I chose wrong, and we didn’t get to go along the bluff that had quite a bit more bluffy species to look at. However, we did get to see some nice species along the way.

Bryoandersonia illecebra was quite common along the trail, and a great moss to showcase imbricate and julaceous branches along with spoon-shaped leaves. Sabina had asked me about seeing paraphyllia, and Thuidium delicatulum was readily available to show off its fuzzy looking paraphyllia. Atrichum sp. are always great first mosses for people to learn, as once you see the lamellae strips, you know what genus you are in.

Once down to Gans Creek, I had hoped to be able to show everyone Marchantia polymorpha, a very fun looking thalloid liverwort. But, because I was on the wrong trail, and the creek was somewhat up from the recent rains, I was unable to find any. However, good ole’ Conocephalum salebrosum was present to do the sniff test. Everyone there (except yours truly as always) could smell something sweet or citrusy. I asked everyone if they liked cilantro and they said yes (I hate cilantro), and now I am wondering if there is a correlation. I will have to start asking this question in the future.

After the hike was over, Jeron and I headed over to the Devil’s Icebox area to try to find the rust moss that my boss had found a week or so ago. We were successful in finding it, and I collected a sample to go along with the other that I found and collected from Cuivre River SP. This population is also parasitizing Leskea gracilescens. Both samples will be sent off for genetic barcode sequencing.

It was another fantastic day of moss snorkeling and enjoying the beauty of nature. If you would like to learn more about my bryophyte crawls and how to join the club, click here. Until then,

Happy mossing!!