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Mosses are survivors. They can dry into what looks like green dust, only to spring back to life minutes after rain. They can grow on rocks, in deserts, and there’s talk of using them to terraform Mars someday. According to new research, mosses have also been hiding something.
UC Riverside researchers studying desert mosses have found evidence, presented in the journal New Phytologist, that these ancient plants may host fungi inside their tissues. This relationship has not previously been documented.
If confirmed, the finding could rewrite what we know about moss biology and even offer clues about how plants first colonized land roughly 470 million years ago.
More than 85% of land plants partner with fungi that help plants pull nutrients from soil in exchange for sugars made through photosynthesis. Around three-quarters of plants team up with a well-known fungal group called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, or AMF. Mosses, however? For decades, scientists have believed all 10,000 species were loners.
