Miniature Forests: A Moss Garden at the Cibodas Botanical Garden, West Java, Indonesia

Bryophytes play an important ecological role as well as contain interesting biochemical compounds that have significant biological properties. Bryophytes refer to three independent plant lineages, of which approximately 8-12,000 are the Bryophyta (mosses), 6-9000 are Marchantiophyta (liverworts), and ca. 200 are Anthocerotophyta (hornworts). Indonesia has more than 2,700 species of bryophytes which are scattered in the major islands such as Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes (Retnowati & Rugayah 2019). Nowadays, due to climate change, pollution, the loss and deterioration of natural habitats, as well as invasive alien species, bryophytes face serious threats (Hallingbäck & Tan, 2010), including in biodiversity hotspots such as Indonesia.

Botanical gardens play a vital role as an ex-situ conservation institution and are a living repository of plant diversity in the world. There are 3,686 botanical institutions in the GardenSearch database of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI 2020). Mounce et al. (2017) reported 75% of embryophyte plant families and 93% of tracheophyte plant families have been conserved in over 3,269 botanical institutions, yet only 2.6% of threatened bryophyte species are documented in the global botanic garden network.

Cibodas Botanical Garden/Bergtuin te Tjibodas (CBG) is an institution under the management and supervision of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences/Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI), plays an important role as an ex-situ conservation especially for humid tropical highland flora. CBG was established on April 11^th, 1852 by Johannes Elias Teijsmann. The gardens covering about 84,99 hectares, is situated on the northeastern slope of twin mountain Gede - Pangrango, Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. It is about 100 km south of the capital city Jakarta and 40 km from Bogor. Approximately one million visitors per year visit CBG, both from Indonesia and abroad (Suryana and Widyatmoko 2019). CBG activities including prevention of plant degradation, increase public awareness toward the value and importance of plant diversity and promoting sustainable use of natural resources. More than 2000 plant species are conserved in CBG either in the main area or thematic gardens such as rhododendrons, ferns, cherry blossoms, and the moss garden.

Twin Mountain Gede - Pangrango (Photo credit: Ikhsan Noviady)

            Aside from being the representative of early land plants, the moss garden in a particular area has an important function to provide a refuge for animals, primarily arthropods (Wynne & Shear 2016). It is well-known that moss gardens have been successfully established by Japanese for centuries. The most popular moss garden in Japan is Saihoji Temple/kokedera (koke means moss; dera means temple). Moss gardens have become increasingly common in other parts of the world. It is noteworthy that the bryophyte section of botanical gardens usually exists in many botanical institutions as part of the Japanese garden, yet only a few declared them as part of specific moss collection (Glime 2017; Gross 2018; BGCI 2020).

The moss garden at CBG was developed and built in 2004 and opened publicly on the 154^th Anniversary of CBG on April 11^th, 2006. The garden is located in Section 1 of CBG, west of the fern garden, and close to the Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) collection. It is about a 15-minute walk from the main gate. This moss garden became the first and largest outdoor bryophyte garden in Indonesia (Suryana and Widyatmoko 2019). The primary function of the moss garden is to help conserve bryophytes of Indonesia; however, this garden also provides beautiful sights for recreation and a convenient environment for education and research.

The design resembles habitats that can be found at Mt. Gede and Mt. Pangrango and their adjacent areas

The moss garden covers about 1500 m² and was designed like the small-scale of Gede - Pangrango Mountains and their adjacent locations. The area was also designed so as to represent as closely as possible to the natural habitat of bryophytes to maintain their growth. Hundreds of bryophyte species, including mosses, liverworts, and hornworts are established and growing successfully in this garden. Some of them cover large landscapes, grow on several substrates, and others were planted on pots. 80% of the species were from CBG and its adjacent location while 20% were collected from field exploration in West Java, Central Java, Jambi, and Borneo (Damayanti 2006).

The landscape is mainly covered by Marchantia spp., Plagiomnium rhynchophorum, Hypnum spp., and Dumortiera hirsuta. Domination of bryophytes differs between wet and dry seasons; Plagiomnium rhynchophorum during the wet season, and Marchantia spp. during the dry one. Some species grow on various substrates such as Anthoceros laevis, Bryum billardieri, Fissidens javanicus, Hypnum plumaeforme, Hypopterygium tamarisci, Meteorium miquelianum, Neckeropsis gracilenta, Pallavicinia sp., etc. Some species were planted on pots, including the mosses Dicranoloma reflexum, Leucobryum aduncum, Leucobryum javense, Pogonatum flexicaule, Sphagnum junghuhnianum, dendroid mosses such as Homaliodendron sp., Hypnodendron sp., Rhodobryum giganteum, and liverworts such as Heteroscyphus argutus and Tricocholea sp.

Constant maintenance is required to prevent the growth of tracheophytes in the moss garden (Glime 2012). Since its establishment fourteen years ago, the moss garden has been through some ups and downs. At the beginning, the bryophytes were planted on specific blocks, hoping that they would stay separate from others. However, that does not work. The ideas of showing scientific names for specific patches soon became tedious and we called it off. After some time, we would find them growing intermixed with other species. Weeding is one of the must do's here, because seedlings from its surroundings never cease to grow. By the time we were done weeding from side to side (which take several days), those at the beginning would be in need of another cycle. Since this garden is located outdoors in a tropical highland area, the big challenges are the hard wind, thunderstorm, and drought. The large branches might be found falling on top of the bryophytes and destroying the surrounding area after a thunderstorm, and patches of brown, dry bryophytes during the dry season.

The moss garden is not perfect and might not bear hidden new animal species as described by Wynne and Shear (2016), but it serves as a starting point for conserving bryophytes. On the bright side, because it is located in the botanic gardens and everything is nearby, we can easily show the different aspects of bryophytes and explain the early evolution of plants to students or public visitors. We can show them the specific characters to students which are not usually shown at school, while the public visitors were usually very surprised when they looked closer and recognized that there were different shapes of bryophytes.

Acknowledgements. We are thankful to Mr. Suharja, a collection staff member of CBG who kindly shared ideas and Matt von Konrat from Field Museum, Chicago for providing helpful comments and suggestions to the manuscript.

References

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). 2020. GardenSearch. https://tools.bgci.org/garden_search.php 

Damayanti, L. (2006). Koleksi Bryophyta Taman Lumut Kebun Raya Cibodas Volume II No. 4. Jawa Barat: UPT Balai Konservasi Tumbuhan Kebun Raya Cibodas.

Glime, J. M. (2012). Gardening: Moss Garden Development and Maintenance. Chapt. 7-4. In: Glime, J. M. Bryophyte Ecology. Volume 5. Uses. Ebook sponsored by Michigan Technological University and the International Association of Bryologists. Last updated 7 November 2017 and available at http://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/bryophyte-ecology/ 

Glime, J. M. (2017). Gardening: Public Gardens. Chapt. 7-5. In: Glime, J. M. Bryophyte Ecology. Volume 5. Uses. Ebook sponsored by Michigan Technological University and the International Association of Bryologists. eBook last updated 10 November 2017 and available at http://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/bryophyte-ecology/ 

Gross, M. (2018, September 24). Can botanic gardens save all plants?. Current Biology 28, R1075–R1095.

Hallingbäck, T. and Tan, B.C. (2010). Past and present activities and future strategy of bryophyte conservation. Phytotaxa, 9, 266–274.

Mounce, R., Smith, P., & Brockington, S. (2017). Ex situ conservation of plant diversity in the world’s botanic gardens. Nature Plants, 3, 795-802.

Retnowati, A. and Rugayah. (2019). Keanekaragaman tumbuhan dan jamur Indonesia, in Retnowati, A., Rugayah, Rahajoe, J.S., & Arifiani, D. (eds.). Status keanekaragaman hayati Indonesia: Kekayaan jenis tumbuhan dan jamur Indonesia. Jakarta: LIPI Press.

Suryana, N. and Widyatmoko, D. (2019). Tour the garden, in Sujarwo, W. (ed.). Cibodas Botanic Gardens at A Glance (second edition). Jakarta: LIPI Press.

Wynne, J.J. and Shear, W.A. (2016). A new millipede, Austrotyla awishoshola n. sp., (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Conotylidae) from New Mexico, USA, and the importance of cave moss gardens as refugial habitats. Zootaxa, 4084, 285–292

Authors:

Ainun Nadhifah | Eka A.P. Iskandar

This article was published in The Bryological Times 150 (2020)