EARTH.COM - Moss seems to get by on almost nothing. It colonizes bare rock, survives near-total desiccation, and springs back minutes after rain.
The vast majority of land plants form underground partnerships with fungi, trading sugars for nutrients they can’t reach alone. Mosses had always been treated as the exception.
New research from California’s desert landscapes suggests that assumption was wrong.
Scientists at UC Riverside have found evidence of a previously undocumented relationship forming inside the tissues of desert moss.
What they observed under the microscope hints at a connection that may be older than almost anything we know about plant life on land.