Moss — Nature’s Free Climber
Traipsing through the woods and forests, we walk nature’s carpet tucked away under the trees. The leaves, needles, branches, and moss are all integral parts of the sensitive, trampled ecosystem. All of these but the moss just happen to fall there, while the bright green bryophytes are fighting for position. But how do they know how to thrive? What places these little organisms in just the right spot where they can grow? That’s a lot of evolution and a little luck.
Look around the next time you’re in the forest, see where the little mosses lie. These delicate green friends grab rocks and tree stumps, holding onto their crevices for dear life. They eschew the black, rich soil of the forest floor, choosing the hard boulders and tough bark of trees instead. But why? Why give up the comfort and nutrients of the soil the soil for the battle of the rock?
In short, it’s the leaves’ fault.
When a leaf falls, it’s not bothered where it goes. It drifts down gently and lays on the ground, waiting to decay into the earth. Once fallen, leaves are subject to the forces that never bothered them on trees. They’re blown around, they wash away, the subjectivity of nature roughly treats these light brown leaves, scattering them all about.
But look. See the one spot where they’re not?
On the rocks, where the bright green moss shines through.
Moss is low, a ground-running plant. At its highest it may send up a stem that reaches six inches, nothing more. A puny little leaf could easily smother the toughest bryophyte, sending it into hibernation, if not death from lack of sun. But the rocks. The rocks are immune to the stifling of the leaves. They slide right off an onward to another spot.
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So when a moss spore finds a rock, a crevice where it can grab on, it holds for dear life. Gripping the rocks through rain and wind, the moss stays put while the leaves get washed away. This simple little creature has evolved to fit in a very specific place. It’s a place where the bad luck of a fallen leaf cannot stop it. Even the stickiest little wet leaf can’t hold a rock in the midst of a rainstorm. But a moss sticks out its little green fingers and holds on with the strength of free-solo rock climber Alex Honnold.
Alex regularly climbs thousands of feet without the benefit and safety of ropes. He heaves himself up along rock faces using nothing but the strength of tiny tendons in his fingers and delicate muscles in his feet. The slightest slip, the most minute insecurity, the tiniest pebble breaking free, all could cause him to plummet to his death.
It is silent where Alex climbs. There is no clink of carabiners or swoosh of ropes through equipment. There is but the stillness of the mountain, the delicate whisper of chalk sloughing off his hands, and the tiny plink of sweat drops hitting rock.
So too is it silent where the moss grows. In the shadows of the woods where nought but the occasional deer treads, all is still. However, just as with Alex, battle for existence is taking place.
Both the moss and Alex are hanging on for their lives. Alex to keep from falling hundreds of feet to the valley floor, and the moss to keep from slipping six inches, down onto the dark soil below.
Both will cease to exist if they drop from their perches. Alex in an instant, the moss at a crawl. Without its little spot, free from the deep shadows of the fallen leaves, the moss can no longer exist. It cannot capture the energy of the sun and transform it into sugar in the almost magical process produces oxygen and keeps us all alive.
So the moss holds on for dear life. Against battering rain and blustering wind, it holds firm, locked into the cracks of the rocks. It knows, as much as a moss can know anything, that a slip means death, and it will not let go.
So moss has carved out its little spot in the harsh environment of the forest. It thanks the deluge that washes away the leaves, knowing that it will be made free of the killing shadows they create. It doesn’t reach upward for the sun like a tree or bush, it holds on tight and lets the weather tend its yard, keeping it free of leaves, branches and dirt so it can thrive in its tiny little niche.
