PhyscoHunt's Journal

PhyscoHunt is the citizen science initiative of a research project funded by the National Science Foundation. We are using Physcomitrium mosses to learn about genome duplication in plants. For that purpose we are culturing strains from this genus growing in North America and Europe, but we have many regions with no representation and we thought that many naturalists might be able and willing to provide data and specimens.

We are using this project on iNaturalist as a hub to share observations and have a space for discussion and feedback. Please, do not hesitate to contact any of the administrators if you have questions.

We have tried to make easy your participation. Our training document will get you ready for action.

Learn more about the project here, and help us disseminating the initiative on twitter with #PhyscoHunt.

PhyscoHunt is funded by the NSF grants (DEB-1753673, 1753800, and 1753811): Diversity of Physcomitrium pyriforme in North America and Europe: significance of autopolyploidy within a phylogenomic and experimental framework. A collaborative project shared among the University of Connecticut, Texas Tech. University, and Augustana College.

Hello everyone!

I am very happy to see that one week after the official start of the project there are already some new members here. Welcome, and thank you for your interest. I hope that this project becomes more than a simple aggregation of Physcomitrium records. Ideally this will be a hub to share comments and to give you feedback on your findings. We are very excited to make this link between our research project and naturalists interested in mosses, so feel free to make comments and ask questions anytime.

You probably already know that goblet mosses are usually seen during the spring, and that the colonies popping up during the fall are outliers. Therefore, although we will be busy next spring, we are very interested in the fall populations due to their rarity and unpredictability. We have found herbarium specimens collected in October and November (two years ago there was an October burst of P. pyriforme here in NW Illinois), and even during the winter at lower latitudes. We are not sure about to what extent these populations will complete the life cycle in the fall, and how frequently (if that happens at all) they overwinter. Your reports will be crucial, so keep your eyes open (especially if you live in Mexico, South USA or the Mediterranean Region).

Best

Rafa