Today I'm going to be talking about some really cool research into mosses, fertilization and

volatile compounds.

You're probably familiar with plant-pollinator relationships. Pollinators, like bees, butterflies,

bats or even lemurs, visit the flowers on angiosperms--flowering plants--and transfer

pollen between them. This allows that pollen to fertilize egg cells and further reproduction.

Flowers often offer incentives, like nectar, for pollinators and evolved things like bright

colors to attract their attention. Hummingbirds, for example, are drawn to bright red flowers,

like torch lilies, and bees follow ultraviolet nectar guides when visiting flowers.

Mosses, however, are not angiosperms, so they don't have flowers. And if you'd like a quick

intro to the moss life cycle, you can check out this video that I made a few weeks ago.

It has long been assumed that mosses are fertilized only with the help of water. When it rains,

the moss sperm cells swim through the water using their two flagellum to get to egg cells

and fertilize them. Recent research has shown, however, that springtails and mites aid in

fertilization of mosses, much like angiosperm pollinators.

A study by Todd Rosenstiel and his team, published in Nature, has even shown that mosses produce

volatile compounds to attract microarthropods like springtails. The study looked at the

moss Ceradon purpureus and springtails, tiny arthropods that live in leaf litter. Researchers

found that the moss produced sex-specific volatile scents, meaning that the male moss

and the female moss produce different compounds. In part of the experiment, they gave springtails

the choice between male moss and female moss, and found that springtails much preferred

the compounds given off by female moss.

And finally, researchers compared fertilization rates in samples with and without water spray,

to simulate rain, or with and without springtails. Both water and springtails separately increased

fertilization rates, though springtails more-so. Having both water spray and springtails made

the fertilization rates sky rocket.

What this means is that having both rain and microarthropods like springtails is the optimum

condition for fertilization in mosses. This makes sense, since mosses grow in the leaf

litter, where microarthropods live, and also in damp environments. This is exciting because

we already have research that shows that some angiosperms give off scents to attract pollinators,

but research into this type of relationship in mosses is new. It's amazing as small as

springtails, which are only a few millimeters long, and mosses can this complex of a relationship.

If you have any questions about mosses, plants or pollinators, please let me know. This has

been Brilliant Botany Episode Ten, thank you for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe,

and I'll see you next time.