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Giant Moss

Mosses and Liverworts

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Giant Moss is a moss in the family Polytrichaceae found in Australia, New Guinea, Malaysia, and New Zealand. It is the tallest self-supporting moss known, reaching heights of about 60 centimeters, and it has structures unlike those of most mosses that let it grow so large: hydroid and leptoid cells that conduct water and photosynthate much as a vascular plant does, and lamellae that form gas chambers for more efficient photosynthesis. It belongs to the class Polytrichopsida, though its sporophyte is unlike that of other haircap mosses in the same class.

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