Moss, city, Norway

Moss (môs), city (1995 pop. 25,253), capital of Østfold co., SE Norway, a port on the Oslofjord. It is a commercial, industrial, and tourist center, with shipyards, sawmills, textile factories, metalworks, and breweries. On Aug. 14, 1814, the convention establishing the personal union of Sweden and Norway was signed there.

moss, in botany

moss, any species of the class Bryopsida, in which the liverworts liverwort, any plant of the class Marchantiopsida. Mosses and liverworts together comprise the division Bryophyta , primitive green land plants (see moss ; plant ); some of the earliest land plants resembled modern liverworts.
..... Click the link for more information. are sometimes included. Mosses and liverworts together comprise the division Bryophyta Bryophyta (brī`əfī'tə, brī'əfī`tə)
..... Click the link for more information. , the first green land plants to develop in the process of evolution. It is believed that they evolved from certain very primitive vascular plants and have not given rise to any other type of plant. Their rootlike rhizomes and leaflike processes lack the vascular structure (xylem and phloem) of the true roots, stems, and leaves found in higher plants. Although limited to moist habitats because they require water for fertilization, bryophytes are usually extremely hardy and grow everywhere except in the sea. Mosses, the more complex class structurally, usually grow vertically rather than horizontally, like the liverworts. The green moss plant visible to the naked eye, seldom over 6 in. (15.2 cm) in height, is the gametophyte generation (see reproduction reproduction, capacity of all living systems to give rise to new systems similar to themselves. The term reproduction may refer to this power of self-duplication of a single cell or a multicellular animal or plant organism.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Except for the commercially valuable sphagnum sphagnum (sfăg`nəm) or peat moss, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Sphagnum,
..... Click the link for more information. or peat moss, mosses are of little direct importance to humans. They are of some value in soil formation and filling in of barren habitats (e.g., dried lakes) prior to the growth of higher plants and also provide food for certain animals. Unrelated plants sharing the name moss include the club moss club moss, name generally used for the living species of the class Lycopodiopsida, a primitive subdivision of vascular plants. The Lycopodiopsida were a dominant plant group in the Carboniferous period, when they attained the size of trees, and contributed to the
..... Click the link for more information. , flowering moss, or pyxie (of the diapensia diapensia (dīəpĕn`sēə)
..... Click the link for more information. family), Irish moss, or carrageen (see algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms.
..... Click the link for more information. ), reindeer moss (a lichen lichen (lī`kən), usually slow-growing organism of simple structure, composed of fungi (see Fungi ) and photosynthetic green algae or
..... Click the link for more information. ), and Spanish moss Spanish moss, fibrous grayish-green epiphyte (Tillandsia usneoides) that hangs on trees of tropical America and the Southern states, also called Florida, southern, or long moss.
..... Click the link for more information. . Mosses are classified in the division Bryophyta, class Bryopsida.

Bibliography

See A. J. Grout, Moss Flora of North America (3 vol., 1928–39, repr. 1972).

moss

Any of at least 12,000 species of small, spore-bearing land plants in the bryophyte division, found worldwide except in salt water. Mosses are simple and ancient plants that have survived nearly unchanged since the Permian Period (290–248 million years ago). Commonly found in moist, shady locations (e.g., forest floors), mosses may range in size from microscopic to more than 40 in. (1 m) long. They prevent erosion and release nutrients from the substrates on which they grow. The life cycle shows clear alternation of generations between the sexual gametophyte, with stemlike and leaflike structures that produce eggs and swimming sperm, and the sporophyte, a raised stalk that ends in a spore case (sporangium). Mosses also reproduce asexually by branching. The economically important genus Sphagnum forms peat. Many so-called mosses are not bryophytes, including Irish moss (a red form of algae); beard moss, Iceland moss, oak moss, and reindeer moss (all lichens); Spanish moss (a name used variously for a lichen or an air plant of the pineapple family); and club moss (an evergreen herb of the family Lycopodiaceae).

moss

Scot and Northern English a peat bog or marsh

moss

1. any bryophyte of the phylum Bryophyta, typically growing in dense mats on trees, rocks, moist ground, etc.

2. a clump or growth of any of these plants

3. any of various similar but unrelated plants, such as club moss, Spanish moss, Ceylon moss, rose moss, and reindeer moss

Moss

1. Kate. born 1974, British supermodel.

2. Sir Stirling. born 1929, English racing driver

moss (redirected from mossing)

Moss, city, Norway

moss, in botany

Bibliography

moss

moss
(redirected from mossing)