I got this softcover at a local Barnes and Noble. It's by the author of Braiding Sweetgrass, which I liked very much.

This one blends Kimmerer's poetic/observant style with touches of the lore of indigenous peoples whose experience of mosses contrasts with some of the Western-societal ones.

The focus of the book is, of course, on mosses - a diverse group of flowerless plants in the division Bryophyta. Their evolution, their nature and properties, the many different ways they've been made use of in human history, the miniature ecosystems that need them to survive - these and more are presented in Kimmerer's lovely style . At one point she contrasts the micro-ecology of mosses to the macro-ecology of rain forests - and it seems there are indeed many solid points of comparison.

One of the more heartwrenching episodes is a description of Kimmerer's stint as a "moss expert", hired by an insanely wealthy (and never named) man to assist in the transplantation of a variety of colorful mosses to the landscape surrounding his new mansion. Despite Kimmerer's best efforts to explain how long it takes for the plants to grow - decades at the very least, in the quantity desired - the man opts for a different way of adding beautifully-aged moss-colonies on a stone outcropping to his decor. [You can probably guess how this turns out; it was a horrifying shock to Kimmerer.]

On the lighter side, there's an attempt to work out how a particular type of moss spreads across significant (well, multiple-inch-wide) gaps, given how tiny the plants are. There was speculation that slugs, crossing the moss-beds, might pick up tiny propagating segments of moss on their sticky surfaces and move them along. This didn't turn out to be the answer, but while "racing" the slugs, the observers discovered a true moss-propagator - in the form of a chipmunk! Their habit of running along logs, and the ways the tiny bits of moss would get stuck in their fur and feet, explained how moss could propagate over significant gaps. And the description of the chipmunk-experiment was very amusing (to me, if not to the chipmunk, though it was released unharmed after shedding its moss-particles!).

While I've always appreciated different types of mosses, from the lovely green mats that appear in my yard to the impressive sphagnum-moss bogs. One of the latter exists not far from my home, a rarity in this part of the world, with a population of exotic-looking sundews and pitcher-plants taking advantage of the local ecology.

I'm adding this to the Biographies of Things bookbox. (The bookbox journal includes my selections and replacements.) Hope someone enjoys it!

** Released for the 2023 Great Backyard Bird Count challenge; see the Audubon site for info on the GBBC. **

Found in the current Biographies of Things bookbox; returning back into the box.

Received in the Biographies of Things Bookbox.

I will release this back into the box.

Released in the Biographies of Things Bookbox.

Please enjoy!

'My first conscious memory of "science" (or was it religion?) comes from my kindergarten class....We all ran to press our noses to the frosty windows when the first intoxicating flakes of snow began to fall. Miss Hopkins was too wise a teacher to try and hold back the excitement of five-year-olds on the occasion of the first snow, and out we went. In boots and mittens, we gathered around her in the soft swirl of white. From the deep pocket of her coat she took a magnifying glass. I'll never forget my first look at snowflakes through that lens...Magnified tenfold, the complexity and detail of a single snowflake took me completely by surprise....For the first time, but not the last, I had the sense that there was more to the world than met the eye."

And so begins this poetical meditation on moss, a memoir of a sort, the story of one woman, a person with a strong Native American background, and her venture into the world of moss.

I never expected to like this book. I certainly did not expect to fall in love with moss.

I found this book in the Biographies of Things bookbox. It is having a quick visit at my house before traveling on in the bookbox.

Nice, here's a book about the lowly little moss that most people don't even notice. I remember about Irish moss drinks and the fad of pet moss stones... wonder if those get mentioned in the book?

Thanks GoryDetails, for sharing another fascinating read.