Sterling MOss
Underrated plant is so important for nature’s minibeasts
ON a recent walk in the woods, I spotted a nice, green, moss-covered wall to sit upon while Julie took a picture.
It came out like a cross between a shot for a catalogue of scruffy clothes and an encounter with a leprechaun and his pet dog.
I didn’t smile because, even after three dry days, the moss on the wall was still soaking wet.
So I spent the rest of that walk with a wet bottom, what a pleasure.
I like moss.
I really like the soft feel of it, especially on the walls around our house.
In spring and summer its dark green really adds a lovely backdrop to the flowers around it.
I particularly like it when the blue and yellow forget-me-nots come out from the gaps in the stone walls.
The moss on my wall could be ordinary moss, yes, that is its less than exciting name, ordinary moss.
I really think the naturalists who named it could have been a bit more imaginative, after all it is really lovely, important and very, very old.
There are more than 12,000 species of bryophytes, which is the more interesting scientific name for mosses.
They are spread all over the world and are generally found in shaded and damp places, like forests and woods.
We do have big carpets of sphagnum moss on our peatland nature reserves between Wigan, Warrington and Salford, but it only grows when the ground is really wet.
Sphagnum moss is amazing as it creates peat, and captures and stores carbon,
which is great for the environment.
When you walk on a moss 90 per cent of what is below your feet is water, which is why it feels quite bouncy.
I am told that evidence of mosses has been found from the nearly 300 million years ago, a long time before humans bounced on mossy bogs.
All mosses are important as they provide shelter for many minibeasts, which are food for many larger creatures.
After my wet bottom encounter I spotted a local gardener scarifying his lawn and moaning about the moss that has invaded his grass.
So most people would see it as a weed and do their best of get rid of it.
It you leave it alone you are likely to get a lot more interesting garden visitors seeking the bugs within.
And if you look closer you will notice a real, delicate beauty about ordinary moss. It is usually dark green, but can be tinged yellow.
It has branching stems that taper, with shiny, oval, pointed leaves that have fine teeth on their edges.
Mosses do not produce seeds or flowers, but reproduce by producing spores.
These spores are held in capsules that grow within fruiting bodies sprouting from the moss.
When they are ready, the moss releases the spores, often by forcing them into the air through the release of built-up pressure within the capsule. In other words, they pop or explode. Nothing in nature is ordinary.
So the next time you walk past a mossy wall give it a stroke and thank it for being a home for some of our smaller, important wildlife.