# Mini Christmas or regular Christmas?



## aluka (Feb 5, 2013)

i got these from a local person as mini christmas, but their strands are looking a bit big, almost as big as regular christmas?


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## gorillakev (Apr 17, 2013)

That's mini Xmas moss. I have both kinds and the mini Xmas moss is more compact and less leggy than the regular Xmas moss

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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Where are reliable references for what's meant with Mini Xmas? Who introduced that name first? 
There are already several different mosses with the label "Xmas". According to Tan and Loh Kwek Leong, Xmas moss was determined as Vesicularia montagnei, a rather coarse moss with roundish leaves, broad cells and short, sharp leaf tip: http://www.aquamoss.net/Christmas-Moss/Christmas-Moss.htm
http://www.aquamoss.net/Christmas-Moss/images/Christmas-Moss-Microscope-03.jpg
http://www.killies.com/Truthaboutmosses.htm
but there's e.g. also a Taxiphyllum that's traded as "Christmas Moss": http://hansezoo.de/shop/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Christmas-Moos-gebunden-3-k.jpg

I myself call a fine, soft, regularly branched moss with almost rectangular branches "Mini Xmas" because I think the name is appropriate, but I cannot be sure if it's exactly the same moss that got the name Mini Xmas first. http://www.aquasabi.de/images/produ...i-christmas-moos---vesicularia-sp--1447-0.jpg 
A friend brought a moss that was cultivated as "Anchor Moss" in Asia, and I couldn't distinguish it from "my" Mini Xmas. The stuff called "China Moss" here might be the same: http://www.mossmania.ru/plants/China-moss/index1.html
and also many pics of "Christmas Moss" (incl. the one from Tropica?) in the web look a lot like "Mini Xmas": http://das-mooshaus.eshop.t-online.de/Christmasmoos
What I call Mini Xmas has smaller, narrower leaves with narrower leaf cells than Vesicularia montagnei. (not very exact, I know...)

I'd rather guess that your moss is Vesicularia montagnei, "true" Xmas. But I can't clearly see the form of the single leaves. (It's a mix; bottom right: a Taxiphyllum!)


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