My Latest Obsession: Moss and Lichens

I can become incredibly absorbed in some things very easily.  Plants have been a fascination for me for  years.  Recently, while all of my garden plants were buried under the snow,  a  blogging friend suggested  I read Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  I did.  It captured my imagination and I have been impatiently waiting for the ice and snow to retreat and reveal some moss for me.  Finally the snow level dropped below the bottom rail on Ed's split rail Locust fence.  Here I think lichens outnumber mosses.  Still wet from snow melt the lichens expand to show their colors.

I leaned over the snow bank and got as close as I could.  I had been reading about the amazing tiny world of moss and I wanted to see it for myself but little was above the snow.   When the snow is gone I want to see if there are tiny little springtails living in the moss.  I wanted to see it now  but  there is still too much snow to kneel down and look at it with a loupe. 

Another spot to the East on that same rail has just a small lichen and lots of moss. Is it one kind of moss that has more than one growth habit or more than one kind?  It seems that there are at least two completely different types of stems and leaves.  In the moss world stems and leaves are not the correct words but they do describe where I am looking.

Here is a little closer look.  I might get closer still, but not until the ice and snow has receded.  Before I go down to the ground I like to be able to at least have some chance to get up by myself!  I wonder if the two stalks that resemble miniature cattails are actively producing reproductive cells at this time.  Who knew there was so much going on in the moss?