Those lush little wads of greenery in your yard have it hard. To reproduce, male mosses must release their sperm into the dew and wait for them to trickle into a female moss, which is a separate plant altogether. Perhaps, if they're lucky, the sperm might be given a lift by tiny arthropods called springtails
, making their way through the moss patch. Why the springtails get involved in this slow-motion seduction hasn't been clear. But now researchers have found that just as flowers release scents that attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, so too does the humble moss lure in the springtail with its own special secretions
. Sampling the air above mosses, the team found that both male and female mosses release volatile scent compounds, many of which have been seen before in flower scents. They also found that when they gave springtails the choice between the male and the female moss scents, the creatures prefer the female's, perhaps an adaptation on the moss's part to attract springtails that have already wandered through a male's sperm to a receptive female plant. The team also verified that having springtails around significantly increases fertilization rates. This is clear, and fascinating, evidence that springtails and mosses have coevolved, much like flowering plants and their pollinators. And this relationship may be incredibly ancient: mosses and arthropods are some of the oldest forms of life around. The team will next look at how these scents are being produced and whether they have anything to do with the communities of microbes that sometimes roost on mosses.
Image courtesy of ibsut / flickr
