Hi 5678
Im trying different things with mosses emersed and submersed. Above my open top tank on wood and in some wabi kusa emersed on wood and rock. I think many mosses can do submersed as well as emersed, you only need to provide the proper conditions and in almost all cases have a lot of patience.. As you see above many mosses also change apearance when condition change.
For example i see fissidens also doing ok emersed in very high humidity, that is if you take a strain which propagated submersed and place that emersed. Im not yet to the point to make it propagate itself emersed and see if or how it will change. And maybe let it addapt to lesser humid conditions. So i can place it on wood above an open top tank.The submersed version yet did not grow by itself out of the water yet. No idea if it ever will do this.. or it maybe is and i do not recognize it as fissidens because i got several kinds of mosses growing on the same wood.
In my open top tank i placed several mosses on the emersed wood parts near to waterline.. I did it also with the moss from above, Emersed it creeps and submersed it takes a stringy form. So it's hard to say which moss will grrow in the same form in all conditions.
I think all the ones you mention in your reply can do, but it will take a long time for submersed forms to addapt to the lesser humid condition above an open top tank. Even very close to the water line the air humidity is very low..
Approach it in a waby kusa style of growing.. Put it emersed in very humid condition and see if you get it to propagate. Than slowly let it addapt to less humidity.
I do the same with terrestrial mosses i find in nature other way arround, put it in a closed container with high humidity like 90% + for a while and see what propagetes. The pieces which propagate in 90% + humidity i do put in 100% humidity (submersed) and they keep going.
Even mosses of which the field guide says it's only found emersed.
That's what i found out till now. mosses don't like drastic changes..
Just an idea for you, one that already worked for me.. Put a bucket outside the house in a half shaded spot. Fill it with any kind of substrate and put some very easy swamp plants in it like Iris. Top it of with water and leave it to mother nature, only give it some ferts once in a while. Just check once in a while, make it a wet and dry invironment, if the topsoil is dry for a few days top it of again with water. after some time mother nature will provide you with some mosses growing in there at the plants base, soil or hardware, mosses which prefer those wet and dry conditions. Take this moss to put on your emersed hardware and your good to go without a lot of experimenting and losses.