Moss

Definition of Moss

Pronunciation: mǒs; 115

n.

1.

(Bot.) A cryptogamous plant of a cellular structure, with distinct stem and simple leaves. The fruit is a small capsule usually opening by an apical lid, and so discharging the spores. There are many species, collectively termed Musci, growing on the earth, on rocks, and trunks of trees, etc., and a few in running water.

2.

A bog; a morass; a place containing peat; as, the mosses of the Scottish border.

Black moss
See under Black, and Tillandsia.

Bog moss
See Sphagnum.

Feather moss
any moss branched in a feathery manner, esp. several species of the genus Hypnum.

Florida moss
See Tillandsia.

Iceland moss
a lichen. See Iceland Moss.

Irish moss
a seaweed. See Carrageen.

Moss agate
(Min.) a variety of agate, containing brown, black, or green mosslike or dendritic markings, due in part to oxide of manganese. Called also Mocha stone.

Moss animal
(Zool.) a bryozoan.

Moss berry
(Bot.) the small cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccus).

Moss campion
(Bot.) a kind of mosslike catchfly (Silene acaulis), with mostly purplish flowers, found on the highest mountains of Europe and America, and within the Arctic circle.

Moss land
land produced accumulation of aquatic plants, forming peat bogs of more or less consistency, as the water is grained off or retained in its pores.

Moss pink
(Bot.) a plant of the genus Phlox (Phlox subulata), growing in patches on dry rocky hills in the Middle United States, and often cultivated for its handsome flowers.

Moss rose
(Bot.) a variety of rose having a mosslike growth on the stalk and calyx. It is said to be derived from the Provence rose. - Gray.

Moss rush
(Bot.) a rush of the genus Juncus (Juncus squarrosus).

Scale moss
See Hepatica.

v. t.

1.

To cover or overgrow with moss.

[imp. & p. p. Mossed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Mossing.]

An oak whose boughs were mossed with age.

- Shak.

Related Words

algae, autophyte, baygall, bean, bog, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, bracken, brown algae, buffalo wallow, climber, club moss, conferva, confervoid, creeper, diatom, everglade, fen, fenland, fern, flowering moss, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, glade, grapevine, green algae, gulfweed, herb, heterophyte, hog wallow, holm, ivy, kelp, legume, lentil, liana, lichen, liverwort, marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, mere, mire, mold, moor, moorland, morass, mud, mud flat, mushroom, parasite, parasitic plant, pea, peat bog, perthophyte, phytoplankton, planktonic algae, plant families, puffball, pulse, quag, quagmire, quicksand, red algae, red tipped moss, rockweed, rust, salt marsh, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum, sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seaweed, slob land, slough, smut, sough, sphagnum moss, succulent, sump, swale, swamp, swampland, taiga, toadstool, vetch, via, vine, wallow, wash, wort, wrack

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