Winter Moss

How must it be, to be moss, that slipcover of rocks? - imagine,

greening in the dark, longing for north, the silence of birds gone south.

How does moss do it, all day in a dank place and never a cough?

a wet dust where light fails, where the chisel  cut the name.

- Bruce Guernsey

Pincushion Moss, Leucobryum glaucum

We came upon a grouping of Pincushion Moss on our walk through a local PA Game Lands unit near home and stopped to admire how the little domes of green occupied a rough, bare patch of ground on the edge of worn-out pasture, grown up now in Beech and young Red Oak.  A tumbled-down field stone wall ran diagonal to an old wagon road uphill of the moss colony. It seemed to serve as a dam that starved this patch of ground of windblown leaves that would have protected the soil from sun scalding and parching. The domes of moss grew independent of each other, separated by shards of weathering rock and dead bits of twig and bark. 

Biocrust atop poor soil.

The poor patch of soil was a lesson in economy of resources, showing us how cobbles and bits of stone lying on top of red iron soil created small pockets of protection against wind and sun and in these pockets grew lichens and other components of a biological crust. In the dips and hollows of soil and stone were tiny bowls of accumulated debris from tattered leaves and bracts, crumbled bits of grass and bark. As the Pincushion Moss establishes more outposts of pioneer domes, this exposed bit of ground will slowly disappear under a blanket of crustal ground cover and maybe, if disturbances can be avoided - the trampling boots of hunters and hikers and the occasional Game Commission truck - it may someday serve as a seedbed for larger plants. 

 

 Haircap Moss garden on rocks along River Road. 

Moss and lichen are the generators of soils. They seem to magically appear in the harshest patches of bare and infertile land. They lay claim to rocks and cliffs.  Given time and no disturbance, they will create gardens of plants growing on and through these colonies of water-retaining, nutrient dispersing beds of green and grey.  Ancient peoples  associated the mosses and lichens with healing properties. Some mosses do have significant medicinal uses including antibiotic and anti-fungal uses. Some, however, are highly toxic and can make a person pretty sick. Like with fungi, it's best to consult an expert source.

Skunk Cabbage and Thuidium delicatulum

As winter progresses - along with this horrid pandemic - I look hopefully to the green growing things that soldier on through the toughest of times and in the toughest of places.  The Skunk Cabbage is up now, a promise of early spring and, along with mounds of Thuidium, there are even the signs of salamanders moving under sodden leaves to find mates and lay eggs.  Soon, says the seep. Soon, says the woods.