native moss

I've heard that there are native aquatic mosses in u.s. waters. id like some for my shrimp tank. i can get java moss pretty cheap but id rather native if i can get it . anyone know where i can get some and what its called?

Fontinalis antipyretica - Willow Moss

I once read that Flame Moss is native to the South-Central U.S. but I can't verify that and that info may be incorrect. Erica..where you at?

How about Hornwort...is that a moss, I'm not sure.

Hornwort (ceratophyllum genus) is vascular, but that's a common name for a lot of things. Ceratophyllum, most commonly ceratophyllum demersum (people often think that's what they have, whether it is or not) is also called coontail.

I was looking things up just now and apparently fissidens fontinalis is different from fontinalis antipyretica (http://www.plantedta...ead.php?t=65138 ) (I had no idea)

There's podostemum, which is a fast flowing flowering (vascular) plant that looks like it could be a moss but it's not, technically.
Distribution: http://plants.usda.g...le?symbol=Poce3
Here's a picture I took of some:

http://img.photobuck...zps49e0f722.jpg
The trick to growing it is to tie to to a rock, point a powerhead at it, and shine like a thousand lumen bulb on it. Home Depot sells clamp fixtures for compact fluorescents for $8. Home Depot also sells 1400 lumen light bulbs for $10 for four, or if you want to light up your whole tank you can get this 2700 lumen ridiculously bright spot light of a light bulb: http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/B003BFTR14
Since we're talking about it, in general I find that between 100 and 200 lumens of light per gallon will grow most plants. I put my lights on a timer for three hours in the morning and five in the afternoon after I get home from work, and the divided hours helps keep algae growth down. (Cladophora can grow a lot if you keep the lights on for 16 hours a day, I discovered). (I mean, not that cladophora's not nice, I once had a cladophora carpet http://img.photobuck...imiru/058-1.jpg http://img.photobuck...imiru/069.jpg )

There are liverworts that are native. For example riccia fluitans and ricciocarpus natans.
Ricciocarpus natans looks like this:
http://img.photobuck...zpsa999cedc.jpg
http://img.photobuck...zps280e8127.jpg

And hemianthus callitrichoides (dwarf baby tears) is native to Cuba, if you count that as North America sort of. It's not a moss but it's super super tiny, easy to grow (I grew it just fine without CO2 under 200 lumens per gallon of light) and easy to find. Picture of an Elassoma gilberti under newly planted hemianthus callitrichoides: http://gallery.nanfa...hoides.jpg.html

Pellia is a cool plant (liverwort, technically). There are some species native to North America, some to Europe, and apparently it's hard to tell which is which because they're physically plastic and have different characteristics in different situations.

Utricularia gibba is sorta neat. It's vascular, not a moss, and it makes a yellow flower. It's a carnivorous plant, and it eats tiny bugs with its bladder. I've got it in my tank right now because it's hard to get rid of.

Here's a guide I found online that lists a lot of North American mosses: http://www.life.illi...-guide/toc.html
It's a really nice list. I didn't know about a lot of those. I'm not sure which ones will grow underwater.

Here's another list: http://www.mobot.org...yToMosses_2.htm I'm sure if you google image search the taxonomic names, you'll probably find some pictures. A few of them look similar to flame moss, like Taxiphyllum taxirameum, but I don't know which one it is. http://www.efloras.o...taxon_id=132350

If neither of those lists satisfies you (although they're both very good. I see lots of words I've never seen before), there's this book, too: http://www.amazon.co...a/dp/1551055694

And NativePlanter might be a good person to ask about this.

Hornwort as in Ceratophyllum spp. is not a moss, and hornwort as in the non-vascular plant family is closer but still not a moss. Native aquatic mosses include various species within genera Leptodictyum, Taxiphyllum, Fissidens, Fontanalis, Spaghnum (sorta, more like a floating moss), Vesicularia, and probably many more not known to the aquarium hobby. Some commonly available ones on sites like Aquabid and in specialist stores include Fountain Moss (Fissidens fontanus), Stringy Moss (Leptodicyum riparium), Willow Moss (as jbaylock mentioned), and more - shop around. If you are feeling more like going out and collecting your own, go right ahead - I was worried about collecting mosses at first as I had heard others have had problems with them, but so long as they aren't from say a frigid crystal clear spring they usually grow just fine in my own aquariums. A word of caution: mosses collected this way will probably never be identified to species for certain, and it will drive you nuts.

Fissidens fontanus is a native moss. I've got it in my native planted stream tank. You can get some from someone on plantedtank.net.

In the eastern US, Fontinalis (several species) are the ones most commonly found attached to roots, rocks, etc in flowing streams.

There's also Mayaca fluviatilis, yet another flowering plant with "moss" in its common name: "bog moss". I found some recently in a NC sandhills stream, at the low-flow water edge, and it's now growing on wet soil with pitcher plants. It can also grow submerged.

"Hornwort" can also refer to a group of non-vascular tiny liverwort relatives, although I dont know of any used as aquarium plants.

i found this stuff growing on trees along many of the rivers in north carolina. it seems to go through wet/dry cycles.
grows all along the lumber river.

its the stuff in the middle. i never have gotten an id for it. any ideas?
unfortunately, i no longer have it. i had it growing pretty well, but it all died in the move to california.

I think it is safe to call it... a bryophyte! Would you happen to have closer pictures than that? Particularly leaflet detail would be helpful. Even then, all I can try to get you to is the genus. As I said earlier - it's gonna drive me nuts!

I think it is safe to call it... a bryophyte! Would you happen to have closer pictures than that? Particularly leaflet detail would be helpful. Even then, all I can try to get you to is the genus. As I said earlier - it's gonna drive me nuts!

nope, thats the best i got, and its been driving me nuts for a couple years now.

i may be moving back to north carolina, so i may be able to get better pics. until then, this is the best i got.

I think what is in the picture is either a leafy liverwort, maybe Porella or possible a lycopodium like Selaginella. If you can see through the leaves and they look about 1 cell thick, it's most likely the liverwort.

I think what is in the picture is either a leafy liverwort, maybe Porella or possible a lycopodium like Selaginella. If you can see through the leaves and they look about 1 cell thick, it's most likely the liverwort.

i followed your lead.
i think it was Porella pinnata. i now know it was a Porella, from looking back in my notes about it.
thanks.