Gathering Moss

Notes from a book of that name by Robin wall kimmerer

Mosses do not often have common names. Set out by Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist.

The advantages of being Small – Boundary layer

Because they lack any support structure – no vascular system, lack of xylem they do not grow very tall, but spread along the surface of the layer they inhabit.That layer is usually close to ground, but not always and is called the Boundary layer, the layer between earth and air.

They inhabit areas of great diversity, small spaces, they fill the empty spaces, like in between pavements or rocks.

Trees will always win competing for sunlight – indeed the type of chlorophyll in their leaves differs from other plants, is fine tuned to absorb the wavelength of light through wood canopy. Succeed through inhabiting logs and stumps just above the leave mold.

Inhabit surfaces – where earth and air meet, the boundary layer. As the air reaches the surface it slows down. Traps both heat and moisture.

Carbon dioxide is 10 times that of above due to decomposition activity in boundary layer.

Hair – reduces air, catches moisture.

Spores – way of reproducing – thrust above boundary layer to escape and spread – called ‘seti’.

They came from water and problems with sex

The amphibians of the plant world. Half way between algae and land plants. They must return to water to breed. Without legs to carry them they have had to evolve. During the Davonian era, The most primitive land plants emerged from the water to live on the land – these pioneers were the mosses.

Problems of sex – water used to carry eggs no longer possible.
The leafy shoots at the top of the shoot (often called gametophores) the archegonium, the female part. At the top of another structure is the antheridium, the male part with sperm ready to be released. To cope with reproduction on dry land. The leaves collect water, held in the basin with the egg in the archegonium. Vanishingly small chance of success. They swim at random in the water film between leaves. Seldom more than 4 inches.

Hardly surprising many mosses have given up on sexual reproduction. Or they become bi-sexual. Instead the clone – long before genetic technology. They can regenerate from just a small piece of them, a piece of leaf.

Dicranum genus. Like Hair. Adaptive divergence. By sidestepping competition, a room of ones own. eg Broom Fork-moss – Dicranum scoparium.

Water dependent

Patient desiccation. (removal of moisture). Acceptance their way of being. Curl inward upon themselves. They must be awash in water for photosynthesis to occur. Without water, without root, they are at the mercy of rainfall. Immune to death by drying. Even after 40 years have been known to survive after a soak of water. Total surrender to the ways of rain. Every element of the plant is shaped to hold water. Moss leaves only one cell thick, rain drop soaks immediately in the cell. Water molecule bi polar + at one end and – at the other. Mosses provide spaces of water molecules. Accordion water traps.

Moss in Norfolk

Castle Acre, Thornham

9 The desert of an old iron mine – ecological succession

Land surface magnetic iron tailings on sterile sand from an old mine, earth so hot. stress solerance of Polytrichum. Advance succession by trapping seed on the moss. Life attracts life . Polytrichum well-grown, large, hummocks or turfs of this species are unmistakable. They consist of tough, wiry shoots up to 40 cm long

Mosses were the first plants to colonise the land and paved the way. The moist protection of the moss provided the environment for insects an invertebrates to adapt to land.

If the ecological rules transcend the boundaries of scale. Imagine Trees a centermeter tall? Tetraphis Tetraphis pellucida, Pellucid Four-tooth Moss

10 Tardigrade water bear

The tardy grade is animal most akin to moss. Lives in the moss. Small of course. The water bear has sucking pads. Dependent on water. The perfect resting place for a water bear is the cup of a moss. Water bears like moss can can survive for long periods of dedication . Suspended . Metabolism reduced to near zero. The moment water becomes available they both resume normal activities.

The interior of moss can house liverworts or single called algae. and hundreds of other invertibrates including tardigrades.