Gathering Moss

How, at 31 years old, did I find myself laying on a bed of decaying leaves, studying one of the wood’s smallest inhabitants? I will fully place the blame on the current book I’m reading.

I’m a huge fan of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writings. Currently, I’m listening to her audiobook, “Gathering Moss”.

“In indigenous ways of knowing, it is understood that each living being has a particular role to play. Every being is endowed with certain gifts, its own intelligence, its own spirit, its own story. Our stories tell us that the Creator gave these to us, as original instructions. The foundation of education is to discover that gift within us and learn to use it well.” 

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

She can turn something as seemingly simple and inconsequential as moss into a poetic, entrancing, and informative masterpiece. Kimmerer is a mother, professor, and a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation.

Her writing entertwines botany facts, with lore from native peoples, and life experiences as a family.

“Just as you can pick out the voice of a loved one in the tumult of a noisy room, or spot your child’s smile in a sea of faces, intimate connection allows recognition in an all-too-often anonymous world. This sense of connection arises from a special kind of discrimination, a search image that comes from a long time spent looking and listening. Intimacy gives us a different way of seeing, when visual acuity is not enough.” 

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

I would strongly encourage you to check out, “Braiding Sweetgrass” for another whimsical journey into loving and honoring the land around you. While I’m a sucker for paper books, Kimmerer narrates her own novels and has a beautiful voice that brings a peace in itself. I prefer her books on Audible.

Bryophytes

Commonly referred to as moss, Bryophyta, are one of the oldest plants on our planet. They are comprised of more than 12,00 species and include any seedless, nonvascular plants. You can find them all over the world and in fresh water. What they lack in tissue complexities, they definitely make up for with diversity in formation.

Moss holds a key place in nature’s design by digesting and releasing key nutrients for other plants. Hidden talents such as reducing soil erosion and producing peat are also apart of their repertoire.

Moss can reproduce by via fragmentation, spores, AND regeneration.

Several imposters are usually referred to as moss. These include Irish moss, red and green algae, Icelandic, reindeer, oak, Spanish, and Club mosses. Spanish moss is actually an air plant (tillandsia) and Club mosses are fern allies.

Historically, some mosses have been used medicinally. Polytrichum moss contains diuretic action (beneficial to the urinary system), and Sphagnum moss had been used to dress wounds in the 1800’s and in WWI as an absorbent.

Foraging

Yesterday was a beautiful spring morning. The baby was napping and my older boys wanted to go foraging (music to my ears!)

Over the last week, life on our little homestead has exploded. The “peepers” have called up the spring flowers, bees are buzzing all around, and our beloved bluebirds have returned to their house in the garden.

With the warmer weather and sunshine, my body has been craving the nutrient dense greens that springtime brings. So a forested pesto sounded like the perfect option for supper.

We quickly filled our baskets with wild garlic mustard, wild garlic, dandelion greens, dead nettles, chickweed, and herbs growing in the garden.

Declan and Stirling soon felt the call of the swamp, and became entranced with all the life they found inside.

I found a relatively dry patch in the sunshine and sat down to enjoy the sounds. It didn’t take long for a beetle to find my hand in it’s path and drew my attention to the bed of moss it was resting on.

This prompted a need for a closer investigation into this cluster of tiny, growing beings.

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It was a good reminder to slow down and enjoy the intricacy of the world around us.

“Time can vanish in exploring these places, like wandering through an art gallery of unexpected forms and colors. Sometimes, I look up from my microscope at the end of an hour, and I’m taken aback at the plainness of the ordinary world, the drab and predictable shapes.” 

― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses