Moss: City Green
I’ve lived within spitting distance of Albany NY for most of my life—and yet it’s a place I never go. Oh, I might go to the outskirts, the mall or the movie theater, but I rarely venture into the city itself. So the other day I decided to be a tourist and explore a bit. There are some beautiful old brownstones, and interesting shops and restaurants (a terrific Jamaican restaurant well named the Hot Spot). But as usual, I was on the lookout for plants. However, the prospects were dim for greenery—we’ve had over a foot of snow and the day I picked for my stroll was about 10 degrees with a wind...
Read MoreMoss as Metaphor
A nearly manicured office building. Trimmed lawn, weeded garden, paved walkway. Not much chance for weeds to sneak in here. Except for the moss. What, you don’t see any moss? Moss–soft, green, fuzzy. It’s a plant everyone can identify, and yet no one can identify it. I once took a course on moss identification. And what you had to do to figure out which species of moss you were looking at was to detach one moss leaf. (One moss leaf. Do you know how incredibly small a single moss leaf is?) Then you had to use a razor blade to slice a cross-section of the moss leaf. Then you...
Read MoreMoss: True North
I took a picture of this tree at high noon. Twelve o’clock. Why? To test an old piece of wilderness lore: the belief that moss grows on the north side of trees. Does it? Or not? If you’re lost in the woods, should you look for moss on a tree trunk and set your path accordingly? Is this truth, or an old wives’ tale? Every time I walk in the woods, I conduct a highly scientific survey on this topic–I glance at tree trunks from time to time. And I have conclusively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that moss grows on trees. But. Does it grow on one side more than on...
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