You may be surprised to learn that this elegant plant dappled with water droplets is a variety of moss: Tortula muralis, better known as wall screw-moss. It"s found all over the world, even in urban areas where more sensitive mosses have a hard time thriving because of dry soil and air pollution. Mosses in general are accurate monitors of air pollution—they absorb air and water, so contaminants can also be measured in their cells.
Tortula moss, Netherlands
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Black-naped monarch
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Least chipmunk, Kootenai National Forest, Montana
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Spine-cheeked anemonefish in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea
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Not your average sandcastle
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Golling Waterfall, Salzburg, Austria
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That s quite a schnoz, baby tapir
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Is that a face in the sand?
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Up, up, and away for Hot Air Balloon Day
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Happy birthday, Saguaro National Park
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Rooftops in the walled city of Urbino, Italy
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A night on the (ghost) town
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Carnival of Venice
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Corona Arch near Moab, Utah
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A unique perspective from Italy’s ‘golden sands’
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Happy Boxing Day!
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Walking among the giants
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Ceremony Hall at Sweden s Icehotel
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Pont dArcole over the Seine river, Paris, France
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The birth of Bauhaus
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The ‘Night of Nights’
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Lantern Festival
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International Haiku Poetry Day
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Handmade gnomes at a Christmas market
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Tree of many colors
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The Zugspitze: Germany s highest point
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Kissing Day
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Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
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Molokini Crater, Maui, Hawaii
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Bidding summer adieu
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Birds of a feather
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

