Blooming moss

[Hoy]

Also moss have a kind of flowers. When the sporophyte developes on top of the gametophyte you can get a nice combination.
This is a kind of Polytrichum.

[Toole]

Nice shot Trond.

A couple of pics of the 'snow lichen' ,Cladia retipora, taken earlier this year at sea level a few minutes travel from our residence.
Not sure of the 3 rd pic which i have named as Lichen sps.

Cheers dave
   

[Hoy]

Nice shot Trond.

A couple of pics of the 'snow lichen' ,Cladia retipora, taken earlier this year at sea level a few minutes travel from our residence.
Not sure of the 3 rd pic which i have named as Lichen sps.

Cheers dave
   

Thanks Dave.
Nr 3 reminds me of a Cladonia species growing here in Norway, but I do not know if it grows in NZ.

[Hoy]

Blood red and snow white.
Sphagnum sp. and Cladonia sp. As nice as any flowering plant.

[Booker]

Beautiful image. Many thanks for posting.

[Lori S.]

What beautiful plants and photos, Trond and Dave!  I love the ghostly green-grey of those lichens - we have species here that look similar, superficially, at least.  The place I recall the biggest tracts is as the understory to jackpine (Pinus banksiana) forest in the boreal zone in northern Saskatchewan - loveliest when it was moist and soft after a rain, but equally pretty when it was tinder-dry.
Gorgeous one in the third photo, especially, Dave.

Blood red and snow white.
Sphagnum sp. and Cladonia sp. As nice as any flowering plant.

WOW!!  How I would love to have that in a garden!  (Doubt it could stand anything but the cleanest air, though, and consequently would have no chance in a city.)

[Toole]

What beautiful plants and photos, Trond and Dave!
Gorgeous one in the third photo, especially, Dave.

Pleased you are enjoying the pics Lori.

Here are another couple i took last summer during one of my field trips into the mountains of Northern Southland NZ--A Usnea sps,(lichen), on a rock ledge and a red creeping moss ,(sorry name forgotten for the moment, )in amongst grasses and upright growths of Hebe.

Cheers dave

[Hoy]

That red moss was special! Never seen anything like it here. The only red mosses I know of are species of Sphagnum. The Usnea reminds me of what I find on the outer islands and skerries of the west coast here.

Even on the dry side of Mt Kenya you could find lichens!

[Lori S.]

Yes, gorgeous!

Even on the dry side of Mt Kenya you could find lichens!

Wonderful sight!  I'm not totally surprised by the notion, though, having seen other surprises such as mushrooms in the valley floor in Death Valley, Nevada.  Life exists in whatever form it can, everywhere it can!