START AND GROW A HEALTHY, HYGIENIC MOSS PLANT
Mosses are small flowerless plants that do not have a true vascular system and therefore are unable to draw water and nutrients up from the ground over a distance, which is why they are unable to grow very large. This feature distinguishes them from Ferns and flowering plants. Instead of roots, mosses have rhizoids - fine brown laments, resembling roots that anchor them to the ground but do not draw up water. Mosses absorb water and nutrients mainly through their leaves, which are usually only a single cell in thickness. They do not have flowers or fruit and instead of seeds they have spores.
Moss garden is actually a variety of very simple plants that grow almost anywhere, and on surface outside, particularly if it's damp and shady. You might notice it not only in a back yard, but also on the shaded part of your home's roof, perhaps even windowsills and pathways that lie mainly in shade. In these places you will want to discourage them, but in place of a lawn, moss gardens have real benefits.
Mosses have stems and leaves, but they do not have roots. They have what are called rhizoids, which anchor the plants but do not transmit water or nutrients. Instead of the flowers were are accustomed to, mosses have sporophytes, and instead of seeds, they have spores. Mosses can reproduce both through sexual reproduction, via sporophytes, and through asexual vegetative reproduction. The latter method means that moss will grow from a fragment of a plant.
Mosses are incredibly hardy. They can survive through cataclysmic disasters, and some species are the first plants to appear after a fire. Their rhizoids are surprisingly effective, keeping plants in place through high wind, snowstorms, hailstorms, sub-freezing temperatures - you name it. Established moss colonies don't wash away. Mosses are also effective at capturing storm water runoff. The leaves of moss trap water and absorb it in a way that vascular plants can't keep up with.
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