Time Lapse of a Liverwort and Moss Growing From Blended Moss

This video took 4 months total, but some of the initial frames without much activity (about 2 weeks worth) are cut out. 1 frame every 40 minutes, played back at 60fps, results in about 40 hours of real time per 1 second of video.

I blended a bunch of individual pieces of Acrocarpous moss and spread the mixture onto soil with the intention of producing a moss growth video, but some liverwort spores (probably Marchantia) stowed away and started growing much faster than the moss, taking over. The resulting video is probably more interesting than moss alone.

Early on in the video what appears to be moss protonema can be seen. I included a piece of moss to see if it would stay alive, but it didn't seem to get enough moisture just from proximity to the soil. The moss and liverworts begin growing, before the vigorous Marchantia takes over a large part of the planter. To keep from interfering with the video, I didn't have a direct watering/misting system and instead relied on deep bottom-watering to keep the soil very moist at all times. This did seem to work relatively well, although by the end of the video, mold was becoming an issue on the fringes of the planter. I wanted to see if the liverwort would produce male or female structures, but it has yet to do so. At least the gemma cups can be seen.

You can license this video for commercial purposes at my Gumroad store at: https://gum.co/CKZul