Will The Real Club Moss Please Step Forward?

[Vin]

This wee spruce has been living with a couple clumps of club moss for the last three years now. In the front of the "pot", at least I've been told it is a club moss.
I don't know if it is sending roots down or not. View attachment 111313View attachment 111314

I like it! It does look like the club moss that shows up on Google Images. Mine was not labeled correctly am I'm sure it's meadow spikemoss.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Selaginela is a ''moss'' in that it reproduces via spores, and does not have a root system like flowering plants, its roots are fine and shallow, mostly just to achor the plant. There are some very colorful species of Selaginela, sometimes called ''peacock moss'', fronds can be gun metal blue, or red or a mix of colors. Reds, golds, green & blues are possible highlight colors for some species. Selaginella are native to 6 continemts, with hundreds of species. They are a neutral or good moss, in that they are not agressive, won't crowd out or poison out the tree in the pot with it. Some are winter hardy, some not. There are some pretty cool ones. Most are big enough that you would only plant them into pots with fairly large bonsai. Many are quite useful in a mixed kusamono planting. Japanese artists have used them for years, Check Young Chloe's website gallery.

The ''bad'' moss is genus Sagina, variously known as Irish moss or Scottish moss. It is a true flowering plant with deep roots, and heavy seed production. Never bring this into your garden it will colonize every pot within 100 ft. Difficult to eradicate. It chokes out trees, nasty stuff.