The Magic of MOSS
mosses, liverworts, and lichen are different. At their cores, mosses are a plant while lichen are a mix of fungi and algae, and liverwort is a lot like moss but looks entirely different.
— we will be covering lichen and liverwort at a later date.
in 2001 — approximately 8,000 different types of mosses were known.
Moss:
Moss is a non vascular, non-seeding, and non-flowering plant. It also has no real root system. They absorb water through the moisture in the air around them, meaning that they need warmer, more moist environments to flourish. Bryophyta is the term used when speaking about just moss and not any of its close relatives like Liverwort.
Moss reproduces by spore or fragmentation, meaning you can easily remove a portion of moss and relocate it and it generally grows very well as long as needed conditions are met.
Medicinal Uses:
- antibacterial
- antiviral
- Diuretic ( helps kidneys remove access water and/or salt) through urine production — great for urinary tract infections
- can help with coughs and colds
- skin ailments like blisters (but be careful, moss can cause skin reactions like hives and itching on some skin)
Lore:
The most prevalent moss related mythology or lore is the stories of the moss people. They are not made of moss, however, they just live with in or on it in some stories. Moss people are more akin to elves, fairies or dwarves as far as looks are concerned, but are thought to be quite fuzzy like moss is. Deeply tied to the area where they live, if something happens to the moss, trees, or nature where they reside, they also perish.
some stories claim that like fairies, moss people may take a human baby to raise in the fairy realm and leave a moss changeling in its place.
Female moss people are thought to be able to cure plagues as well as cause them. Yet another mythological interpretation of the duality of femininity.
when I was a child, I was running from my parents house to my grandparents house up the hill and accidentally ran into a honey bee. In trying to defend itself, the little bee buried its stinger into my ankle. I was beside myself, not only because I had killed this bee but because with every passing second my ankle was swelling and I had a dance recital that very afternoon.
I ran crying into my grandparents house and without hesitation my grandfather took me out into the backyard by the little pod they had and gathered some mud and moss. He applied the mud directly to the wound and laid the moss overtop of it. When doing this he stated how the moss would pull the venom out of the sting and as the mud dried it would keep the venom up and away from the wound. I wrapped my ankle and did not remove the bandage until two songs before I had to go on stage and to my surprise the swelling was GONE as well as the wound being almost completely healed as well.
From that day forward I was bound and determined to learn all I could about what plants offered.
