Spring is in the air!

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We may still have a week and a half until spring officially starts, but with our mild winter it seems like it's already in full swing. You've probably noticed that a lot of grass was able to stay green throughout the season, but new growth is starting to wiggle its way up through the turf as well.

Here at Great Meadows in Sudbury, the mosses are getting a jump on things and sending up their sporophytes. Unlike most plants you may be used to, moss produce spores instead of seeds. The spores are contained in the sporophytes, and will fall off to be dispersed by the wind when they are ready.

Mosses also don't have vascular tissue like a lot of plants and trees. That means they don't have tube-like structures in their stems that bring water to all parts of the plant. Without those tubes, mosses have to get their water by letting it absorb from one cell to the next. That is why mosses are low-growing, and you will always find them in wet areas!