Mosses

Mosses are among the oldest land plants. They have no vessels, so water has to soak slowly from cell to cell; that keeps them only a few centimetres tall and in damp, shady places, where they form a soft green carpet. Their leaf-like and stem-like parts are made of cells that are all alike, so mosses have no true leaves, stems or roots; thin threads called rhizoids hold them down. Like ferns, they grow from spores, made in a capsule at the top of a thin stalk.