Tiny volunteer fern on orchid mount?

[Pattywack]

I have a small glass & wood terrarium that I call the bird house. It has 4 mini orchids; Pleurothallis leptotifolia, Haraella odorata, Pleurothallis agua verdes Peru and Mediocalcar decoratum. There is a nice growth of moss on a piece of lava rock I have the leptotifolia growing on.

The Mediocalcar decoratum has a little friend that has grown on the mount along side it and I'm curious as to what this could be. It is very small and has not always been there. It just started growing a few weeks ago. Is this some kind of fern? It's pretty cute, there may be a second one coming up as well. Any ideas?

[Ordphien]

No idea.
But I'm incredibly jealous.
I've always always always wanted a fern or something to grow out in my tanks.
It's so cute.

[Ray]

I'll play "Debbie Downer" on this one.

While that is a really neat looking little fern, please be aware that most ferns are "territorially" very aggressive, and their roots will overtake and choke out everything around them.

Your best option is to remove it now, and if you really like it, give it its own "bird house". My guess is that even if you do that, there will be enough left behind for the fern to reestablish, so keep working at it.

[Pattywack]

Thank you Ray/Debbie for your thoughts. That is a downer. I was in hopes the little thing would stay small. I have a few alligator ferns that came up on another mount and I know they get really large so I'm potting those.

This one is so tiny and cute I could easily remove it and give it a new home. I only have the one bird house tho. And by the way, what would you call it?

[gnathaniel]

Nice! I don't think it's a fern or other pteridophyte (spore-bearing vascular plants) but rather a bryophyte (non-vascular plants like mosses and liverworts), probably a moss of genus Plagiomnium ('thyme-moss') or similar. Some mosses can get a little weedy when grown with orchids, but they're usually pretty easy to pinch back if need be.

[Pattywack]

Thank you gnathaniel, you may be correct. It looks like thyme moss. There are several it might be after doing a quick search, hearts tounge is very close to it. I'm going to leave it alone for a bit and see how it grows. So far it's been slow.

[Ray]

Nat - thanks. That's a new one to me.

Patty - The best name I can come up with for that enclosure is "Really cool"!

[No-Pro-mwa]

That is a very cool little green house. I did see something like this yesterday. I was looking at it and thinking it would be great for an orchid.

[Pattywack]

Shannon, thank you. I found this at Home Goods and I like it. It isn't very big but works well for me.

[No-Pro-mwa]

I'm always worrying about air movement in things like these. I have a huge Brandy snifter I keep wondering if it would be OK for orchids. I'm always thinking if I get ones that don't need much air movement then maybe they would be oK. Like I need more projects.