Two-week terrarium update, and an experiment

It's been two weeks, and my terrarium is still looking good.  And in the last week, several little mushrooms have popped up from the sphagnum!



I like the way it looks- hopefully the fungi won't get out of hand.



The Lepanthes in the glass teardrop is also doing well.  The spike (or leaf, I'm not entirely sure which) is growing.

I took this picture through the 5x portion of my magnifying glass, which was only moderately successful.  Still fuzzy, even with my little tripod. I ordered a macro lens for my phone, and though I'm somewhat skeptical that an external lens on a cell phone will actually be worth using, it will be interesting to see if I can get clearer closeup photos.



I have also started a moss experiment.  I got these pieces off eBay, where they are marketed to go in aquariums even though terrestrial moss doesn't usually do well submerged and I expect that most people who buy them kill them almost immediately.  I sure did when I didn't know better and bought a piece for my aquarium many years ago!

The plan this time around is to grow them in the air, not submerged, with the goal of putting them in my terrariums.  We'll see.

For now they're just in a recycled clear plastic takeout box, to see if they even grow.  These are Plagiomnium trichomanes on the left and Tortula ruralis on the right. Or at least that's what they were sold as, who knows if those are actually the species.



I got these because supposedly they stay short and will grow in cultivation.  I can't find much info online about Plagiomnium trichomanes, but what's funny is that I know Tortula ruralis has a world-wide distribution and is probably found in northeastern Oregon.  Who knows, maybe some of the moss I collected in the woods last week for the Lepanthes telipogoniflora terrarium is this species!  There are a couple clumps that look similar to a Tortula species, but I don't know mosses very well at all.  I need to get a good guide for this area (if there is one)!