Snapshot: Moss

Here’s some moss I saw on a recent walk along the Thames River, west of London. The Thames itself was too high to walk where my traveling companion and I had planned – the trail was underwater, and so were lots of fields and the meadow in the background of this photo, where a woman we encountered had hoped to walk her dog. Everyone in the area was walking their dogs on the streets that week.

I love to see moss. That’s why I took the picture. Also, I can never remember what moss is.

Is moss a plant or…some other thing? Classifying things is hard. What about fungus? Animal, vegetable, or mineral? The answer is often “it depends”–and people have answered these questions in different ways at different times. Is zucchini a fruit or a vegetable? Well, are you interested in its botanical or culinary function? Is whale a fish or mammal? The answer was a different a few centuries ago than it is now. And a lot has changed about the classification of life since I learned it in school.

But on moss, the internet tells me, we are clear. A moss is a plant. A funny little plant with spores and no roots. A beautiful plant that looks soft like a carpet. A plant that can survive dry spells by drying itself out. A plant that grew happily on the bridge over this stream–this stream that is currently just another part of a meadow, or is it a lake, or is it a river. Ask at different times and you’ll get a different answer.

Photo: Helen Fields, obviously