A CASE STUDY
Plant factory production of Sunagoke Moss
Recently, much attention is being paid to the use of moss as a greening plant for building surfaces.
The roof top greening helps reduce the air pollution caused by emitted CO2 and prevents the
environmental deterioration resulting from heat island phenomenon. Thus, Murase (2004) has
highlighted an active greening technology using moss. Among all kinds of moss , cultured
sunagoke moss Rhacomitrium canescens is the most suitable for the greening of building surfaces.
This is because it does not require any substrate such as soil for propagation , nor does it add a considerable
weight burden to the building structure. In addition, it can survive under very dry conditions.
Moreover, it is almost maintenance-free (Uemura et al., 2003). In order to support this
technology, Murase (2004) has built a new technology which grows cultured moss in one to two
months in plant factory compared to three years in natural growth.