Pillow Moss? Other types of moss?

themann42 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 02:36 AM

I am having a bit of trouble deciding what kind of moss to use for my vivarium. I saw a close up shot of Pillow Moss and I thought it looked great. When I found a site that sold it I saw this pic:

I was wondering what the crevices were in the picture. Is that just seperate peices overlaying eachother? or is that how seperate pieces grow into eachother when they butt up? I want a nice even coat of moss to cover my ground.

Does anybody have any other suggestions for moss?

I also came across this (Selaginella kraussiana 'Aurea' (Gold Tipped Club Moss)). Does anybody have experience with this? I wonder how it compares to moss.

beeswaxx · #2 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 03:04 AM

I just bought some of the second picture, I just thought it looked neat...
I haven't planted it yet though.
-Beeswaxx

Lukeomelas · #3 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 03:23 AM

The pillow moss comes in chuncks that you usually piece together to form one big continuous sheet. From what I have heard it will grow together and the lines between pieces won't show. I just used this exact moss in one of my newest vivs and it really looks cool IMHO.

elmoisfive · #4 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 03:30 AM

Pillow moss grows in a "mounded" fashion and what you are looking at in that picture is the result of separate mounds growing together. The end result is a series of rolling hills (well little mounds) in the viv - not a nice flat surface. But it is quite nice.

Selaginella as noted is a club moss and grows to a greater height than true mosses and while it can cover a given area, it doesn't have the same ground cover impact compared to true mosses. I have both Selaginella (several kinds) and either tropical sheet or tropical pillow moss in a number of my vivs and they all work well.

Keep in mind that any viv setup will need to "grow" into its final form, whether from the perspective of the plants growing in, moss layer settling in, etc. Use your imagination of how it is likely to look long term (and there are number of pics in peoples' galleries here) as opposed to being discouraged that a newly set up viv looks a bit barren or raw. Good luck.

Bill