Irish moss /sea moss - Reindeer moss ?

[Robin Kennedy]

Around here we call the Cladonia sp. used in model railroad scenery
"reindeer moss" -- maybe that somehow  morphed into "sea moss".

And "Irish moss" has always served me, in teaching general botany, as a
good example of the confusion that common names cause, since it ("Irish
moss") is indeed, Chondrus crispus, a red alga.

=====================================================
Robin C. Kennedy, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Biological Sciences  and Curator of the Herbarium (MO)
Mail address:
Div. of Biological Sciences, 110 Tucker Hall, Columbia MO  65211-7400
Phone:  573-882-6089(teaching office) or 573-882-6519 (Herbarium)
FAX:  573-882-0123    E-MAIL: kennedyr at missouri.edu
HERBARIUM E-MAIL:  umoherb at showme.missouri.edu