Mosses are one of the oldest plants on Earth and have been able to adapt to life in a variety of conditions. Their well-known ability to actively retain moisture sometimes leads to bogging of the soil, but this does not threaten the gardens of the Russian Museum, because they are located high above the water level, which, of course, depends on the actual water level in the Neva River and averages 2 meters. The maximum feature to retain moisture by acidifying it is sphagnum moss. The life of mosses usually depends little on the particle size distribution of the substrate on which they develop. Mosses can grow on poor soils, rocks, tree trunks, and even in the aquatic environment. But the chemical composition and acidity of the substrate are important for bryophytes, so there are species that prefer fertile soils, acidic or neutral soils, but there are no species that grow on saline soils.

In the gardens of the Russian Museum there are many types of leafy mosses, and all of them, as a rule, are mesophytes, i.e. living in shady places with medium moisture conditions. Epiphytes growing on tree trunks are also present. There are species that occur singly or in local areas (atrichum, ritidiadelfus), and there are species that are common throughout the gardens (brachycetiums). In the Mikhailovsky Garden plagiomniums are more common, preferring shaded moist soils, which can be associated with daily watering of the entire lawn surface of the garden. In the Summer Garden, lawns are more often deficient in dry periods, as the irrigation system was carried out only under the ordinary planting of linden trees in trellises (almost 6.5 km), in discounts with lingonberries, and centralized irrigation of the ground and slopes of the Karpiev pond was organized. It often meets polii, briums. According to our observations, there are more species of mosses in the Summer Garden than in the Mikhailovsky Garden, and it is likely that they maintain the moisture balance, which is beneficial for the plantings in our conditions. A rare liverwort for the city also grows in the Summer Garden. It was also cited in 2003 in the results of geobotanical studies carried out by employees of the Botanical Institute. V.L. Komarov RAS (E.A. Volkova, M.A. Makarova, L.E. Kurbatova). The lists of leafy mosses at that time included 26 species, of which only 6 species were often found, and the rest were rare and generally single. At present, a new cycle of geobotanical research has begun in all areas under the management of the Russian Museum, and we will be able to collect modern information about bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), as well as their number and characteristics of the state and dynamics of the vegetation layer formed by them.

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