Day 186: A good scientist never makes assumptions. He or she uses every available tool to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
My yard hosts what surely must be at least two dozen different species of moss, many of which grow up through each other. Consequently, features like a spore capsule appearing above one species may in fact be attached to a different one when traced back to its roots. The patch at the end of my carport is a good example of this phenomenon. Yesterday, I grabbed a sample of what I thought might be a Rhytidiadelphus and brought it in the house to analyze. It didn't quite want to fit any of the descriptions in "Common Mosses of Western Oregon and Washington," leading me to think momentarily that I had a less common relative. Then I put it under the microscope. There, the serrated leaf margin was obvious (I could not have seen it with a hand lens despite what the book says). Given this additional clue, I identified it as Kindbergia praelonga, "one of the most common lawn mosses." Well, start with the easy ones. That's how you learn.
