Bryolog 39 (21 February 2025)

Upcoming

As a general policy, check the website for event updates before you walk out the door!

Vote for Field Trip Director and Secretary. LINK TO BALLOT
Register for SO BE FREE 29, 30 May–02 June 2025 in Humboldt County, CA.
Deadline for student research scholarships extended until 15 March 2025. Apply HERE
Student travel scholarships coming in time for SO BE FREE 29! Updates soon HERE
Thursday 27 February 2025, 6 pm PT on Zoom, Monthly Meeting: Peter Alpert will present Today’s Taxon, Schistidium maritimum, with special focus on salt tolerance in mosses; and Nickte Mendez will share her work on a photographic key of California Orthotrichum species. More info and Zoom link HERE
Thursday 27 March 2025, 6 pm PT on Zoom, Monthly Meeting: Jason Brooks will shine the spotlight on Syntrichia lithophila; and Liat Adler will discuss her research on hornwort pyrenoids.
Thursday 24 April 2025, 6 pm PT on Zoom: Stacey Anderson will briefly introduce Didymodon aserinocapitatus, followed by a feature presentation TBD.
25–27 March 2025, Nonvascular Plant ID and Assessment Workshop with David Magney, Jim Shevock and Michael Mulroy, at Althouse and Meade in Paso Robles, CA. Info and registration HERE
Save-the-date: 26–30 July 2025, American Bryological and Lichenological Society (ABLS) meeting in Palm Springs, CA. MORE

Quarterly Report

Many thanks to CNPS central for awarding us with an internal grant to support SO BE FREE 29 and student travel grants! MORE
January “Mosses and Microscopes” day summary HERE
Monthly meeting recap HERE

Timeless Bits

Photo gallery: bryophytes inspiring hope HERE

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ABLS Meeting

Save-the-date: 26–30 July 2025, the American Bryological and Lichenological Society (ABLS) will be meeting in Palm Springs, California as part of Botany 2025 (see: https://2025.botanyconference.org/). ABLS meets only rarely in California, so this is a special opportunity for us to interact with colleagues from across the continent. You can give a talk (abstract submissions are now open through 14 April 2025), and attend to hear the latest developments in bryology. There will be associated field trips as well; stay tuned for details in the next Bryolog.

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Grant Award

We express our gratitude to the “CNPS Grants For Chapters In Financial Need” Committee for a $4,000 award in response to our proposal entitled “Empowering future conservationists: supporting student participation in SO BE FREE, the CNPS Bryophyte Chapter’s annual foray.” And many thanks to our President-Elect Jenna Ekwealor, President Kirsten Fisher, and Treasurer Jordan Collins for putting together this proposal in record time. We are excited to offer travel grants to support student participation in SO BE FREE and other bryologically-related travel, and look forward to nurturing future bryologists.

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Mosses and Microscopes Summary

The January “Mosses and Microscopes” day at College of the Redwoods was perfectly attended. Early in the day, we went on a delightful nature walk, observing ephemerals that were just getting started and then standing up in a forest to look at epiphytes. After lunch, we peered through microscopes at what we’d collected outside, with reference to the bryophyte life cycle. The day was wrapped by drawing a phylogeny of all the kinds of bryophytes we’d seen, showing how they are reported to have ancestors in common, more and more remotely.

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Monthly Meeting Recap

On 05 December 2024, we held a combined November/December meeting, featuring an inspiring interview with Jim Shevock, world-renowned bryologist, with seven flowering plants, eight mosses and two liverworts named in his honor, including the moss genera Rheoshevockia and Shevockia, both first discovered in Yunnan Province, China. Among other things, Jim shared his knowledge of rheophytes, and encouraged us to discover new species by exploring farther away from roads.

Our 23 January 2025 meeting attracted a whopping 40 attendees! We held our first ever Bryo Chatter session fifteen minutes prior to the meeting start, at which Ken Schneider enquired about gemmae, showing a few photomicrographs he’d taken at home. Jordan Collins shared a link to his Marsupella funkii post on iNaturalist, as identified by David Wagner—a cool find indeed!

Paul Wilson then followed with a walk through several of the couplets of the California Moss eFlora key using a mystery moss from Mattole River Retreat where SO BE FREE 29 will be held in May. All were intrigued and mostly stumped by the tiny pleurocarp.

microscopic view of stem, lacking paraphyllia — Mystery moss, lacking paraphyllia

For the main attraction, Randal Mindell, botanist hailing from Vancouver, BC, treated us to a tour of the diversity of Riccia species in British Columbia. He emphasized the power of iNaturalist, which has galvanized a virtual community of enthusiasts whose searches have increased the known Riccia taxa in BC from 6 to 11 species, and has greatly expanded the known range of these species.

A big shout out to Jordan Collins for his continued role as our skilled MC, and to all of our speakers and attendees!

Join us for future meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month, now at the new time of 6:00 pm PT (5:45 pm if you’d like to join in the BryoChatter) on Zoom. If you’d like to give a talk, don’t hesitate to email us at amandaheinrich777@gmail.com, jordancollins@cnps.org, or bryophyte@cnps.org.

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