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Give Nature Half a Chance - From This To This...

Tim Harrison

Tim Harrison

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UKAPS Team
Joined
5 Nov 2011
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Location
Leicestershire
From this...
13451748134_1e6dfd2feb.jpg


To this in a couple of months...
14381648881_c6c2c4d29b.jpg


That is the Rotala sp. 'Green' at the back, successfully nursed back to health:nurse:...
 
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Very nice, Troi.
Just show the point of stem-plants; it's the condition of stem, that matters - not the leaves, really - when you receive it.
I've had plant-material handed over, that have been sitting in "snap-plastic-bags" in a suitcase for WEEKS.........smelling undescripable!
As long as the actual growing-point is intact and alive, there's a fair chance (and it's kinda fun, isn't it ;))
 
Thanks Mick...I'm never ceased to be amazed by natures resilience...I find it quite reassuring in a way...
And yes the challenge of bringing them back to life is actually very satisfying not to mention fun.

Big clown said:
Like it.
I wish is taken pics of the amania bonsai when i got it. I'll be back in a few weeks to post pics my 10ish stems are doing quite well
Click to expand...
Look forward to seeing those pics...
 
Thought I'd revive this old thread since I have experienced something of a minor miracle in my new scape.

I have Fissidens growing on my wood. Nothing remarkable about that, except I didn't put it there.
It can only have been from a former scape. The wood was scrubbed clean, dried, and stored in the garage for several months prior to it's reuse.

Give nature half a chance...:rolleyes:

From this...
25090984638_efaa81d026_b.jpg


To this...
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Been doing a bit of research in to the phenomenon of drying without dying and it appears that perhaps it ain't so special after all; desiccation resistance is relatively common in bryophytes.
For example, one particular species of Fissidens, F. minutifolius can apparently survive desiccation and remain viable for around 6 years, and Riccia macrocarpa can survive 23 years.
http://www.bioquest.org/summer2008/Alpert_00.pdf
 
I got a little wooden insecthous hanging in the garden.
DSCF9760.jpg

On the bark of it's roof is among others growing of what i think is Leptodontium.. :) In the summer it dries out and shrinks and so dry i can powder it between my fingers if i do that and put it on moist soil it revives within hours. When it cools down and gets wetter in the fall it revives and grows like mad. :) It withstands drouth and frost, tho one of those mosses doing good outdoors but not yet managed to make it survive indoors for longer than a month. For some mysterious reason it stops growing and goes brown. Sometimes it seems to revive and than goes away again. Can't get it to thrive.
 
Nice bug hotel Marcel. Leptodontium, that's a nice looking moss, and thanks for another example of drying without dying.
It maybe more common than I originally thought, but it's still amazing :cool:
 
Tim Harrison said:
Thought I'd revive this old thread since I have experienced something of a minor miracle in my new scape.
Click to expand...

Had a similar experience with Moss Tim. I'll try and get a picture of it later. Found a root in my garage that had been sitting in a bucket with other pieces of hardscape I keep just in case one day a piece is just right. I would suggest the root had been bone dry for about 5 years and had some dry cyan looking algae on it so I gave it a run over with a wire brush to bring some texture back to the root and remove flakey looking bark. About 6 months in I noticed moss starting to grow on the root and there wasn't any put in the scape. Didn't want moss in the scape because I find it gets full of detritus and needs a hoover but was worried I might suck up some baby shrimp residing in there so gave it a blast with LC which turned the juvenile moss white. Fast forward 12 months the root is now covered in moss, I just let it be. In the fight against nature resistance is futile.
 
:) Thank you Tim.. That bug hotel is very old, almost complte rotted, need that chain to hold it together.
But now you mention drying without dying.. I remember my grandma, she always had some curiosities in tha house.. She had a odd looking dried out plant in her cabinet, looking like a brown alien facehugger, realy creepy looking. At least thats what i thought when i was a kid and asked what it was. She kept it in her cabinet for years, she took it out to show me and did put it in a bowl of water.. Than rather soon it slowly opened up, looking even more creepy.. And a few weeks later it was completely green again. If i remember correctly it was a plant called Jericho Rose. That was a real oddity to see back then.. Actualy never saw one again.

It seems to be a spike moss family
220px-Rose_of_Jericho.gif

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selaginella_lepidophylla
 
That's as freaky as it is remarkable o_O
Now you mention it I'm sure we had one in the lab, back in the day, when I was an undergraduate.

Selaginella_lepidophylla_gruen.jpg
 
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