Mosses!

A peek of green in the melting snow. This type of moss seems to prefer growing on rotting wood

Spring hasn't really begun it's full swing yet here in New England, as my most recent walk through the woods has shown me. There are a few points of green starting to show through, but the majority of vivid green right now comes from mosses.

 moss growing at the base of a tree

  Moss is a (usually but not always) bright green plant that is often found growing on the ground or the occasional rock or rotten wood, and usually looks a lot like a carpet. If you've ever stopped for a minute and run your hands through some moss, you might even notice it feels a lot like a carpet.

This moss has interesting cup shaped ends. It is softer than it might look!

  Moss loves shady and damp places, so there is quite an abundance of it here in my neck of the woods, as we have many ponds and streams and a fair amount of forest.

Damp moss is happy moss

  Mosses don't have flowers like many other plants have, but you may have seen moss with what appeared to be flowers on long thin stalks. Some mosses reproduce through spores, and the strange "flowers" you see are called Sporophytes, they are used to disperse the spores.

this moss is very happy on it's rocky perch above a stream. you can see several of the sporophytes here.

  Mosses were among the first land plants on Earth, and not a whole lot about them has changed over the years. It's kind of interesting to see them and know their kind was here before any animals ever were.

These colorful mosses decorate a fallen tree.

  I particularly enjoy the way their color lights up the forest while i wait for the other plants to wake up from their winter naps.
                                                 

This vine-like moss enjoys climbing the trunks of living trees.