Notes from the Apothecary: Moss
It’s been a while since I posted in this column, but I’m hoping to get back to it once a month. I wanted to start back with a plant that I’ve been fascinated with since I was a child. Well, it’s not one plant really, but a whole group of plants: Moss.
Moss is like a miniature forest; a whole ecosystem on a doll’s house scale (or smaller) that holds so much wonder. From common haircaps emulating pine trees to sphagnum moss that forms unique peatlands, moss is a very special part of our ecosystem and is packed with magical potential.
The Kitchen Garden
Moss is a collection of non-vascular plants. They don’t have ways to transport water and nutrients from roots to leaves like trees, flowers, and other vascular plants do. Instead, they rely on their immediate environment (tree bark, soil, rocks, or even ice) to provide moisture and food, and the moss soaks this up like a sponge. That’s why moss is short, sometimes almost flat-looking, because it can’t stray far from its food source. It’s that green carpet you get in shady, humid forests or up the side of a tree — soft, inviting, and full of life.
The big kitchen garden question: Can you actually eat moss? The short answer is yes, but you probably shouldn’t unless you’re a very experienced forager or plant expert. There are plenty of mosses and similar plants that could make you very sick, so avoid the temptation to taste the moss.
Some moss that you can buy as supplements or food additives isn’t actually moss. Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), for example, is actually a type of algae. It’s used in brewing as a non-animal-based alternative for finings — the substance that helps remove certain compounds to improve clarity. Irish moss is also used as a thickener for some processed foods, including ice cream.
There are other “mosses” that are, in fact, lichens. Lichens, like moss, grow in damp conditions and can be found on the bark and roots of trees. However, lichens are a wild combination of fungi and algae working together to create a symbiotic relationship. I guess we’ll have to have a separate Notes from the Apothecary edition just to cover these organisms! Oakmoss (Evernia prunastri) is an example of an incorrectly named lichen. The perfume industry uses oakmoss for its unique fragrance, while some survivalists suggest it can be used as a food source. However, the recommendation is to boil it several times to remove acids that could potentially be toxic — so probably avoid!
The Apothecary
Research shows reports of moss being used in Western medicine as far back as the 1500s, but it’s likely that these uses go back much further than this. During the 16th century, certain types of moss were noted as being useful for restoring hair for alopecia sufferers, as an expectorant for removing fluid from the lungs, and as a treatment for epilepsy. Conocephalum conicum, a type of liverwort in the same division as mosses (bryophyta), was found in Italian pharmacists around the same time period. This and other liverworts may have antioxidant properties that could help protect against the impact of heavy metal pollution.
Moss appears to have been more widely used by indigenous communities around the world. Robert Dale Rogers notes in his book, Moss Medicine, that moss has been used medically, for clothing, and for everyday needs like food preservation. Vikings may also have used peat moss as a way of preserving food and water on long journeys.
The Witch’s Kitchen
It’s hard to overstate the magical nature of moss, from its fairytale forest existence to the healing properties highlighted above. However, perhaps because of their small size or complexity, the use of mosses in magic and witchcraft isn’t particularly well documented. That doesn’t mean that you can’t explore its potential for yourself. Messages you can take from moss include:
- Great things come in small packages
- Complexity isn’t reliant on size
- Small actions can have the biggest impact
- Life exists on more planes than what we can see with the naked eye
Moss is also associated with protection, stability, regeneration, and growth. You could harvest a little moss from your garden and keep it moist and alive on your altar — never take too much, as you could irreparably harm the ecosystem. If you’re lucky enough to have a microscope, you could even take a closer look and see if you can spot one of the many tiny organisms that live in and on moss, such as a tardigrade.
Cree legends tell of the trickster, Wisagatcak, who builds a raft to deal with global floods caused by the Great Beaver. Moss on the raft expands, with the help of a wolf, to become the continents of the Earth. Here, moss is regrowth, regeneration, and rebirth — but also creation and the start of something new.
One of the most exciting things about moss is its diversity. There are over 12,000 distinct species of moss, spread throughout the world — including arctic regions. As well as species like arctic moss (Calliergon giganteum), cold regions of the planet are home to something incredible called glacier mice. Glacier mice are rounded moss formations that are dead inside but alive on the outside. They often live on ice (hence the name), and as the ice around them melts, the area beneath the moss is protected and doesn’t. Eventually, this creates a little icy bump in the terrain, which the moss rolls off.
In this way, glacier mice rumble their way across glaciers, sometimes shifting as much as 30 feet per year. That might not sound like much, but it’s a lot more than most mosses move! Glacier mice all move in the same direction, too, and nobody knows why.
For me, this is wondrous because it’s a genuine mystery left in the world. These balls of moss (and their microorganism passengers) shift slowly across the ice, always in unison, moving as a herd on a mission we can’t comprehend. They represent unity, and also the power of small changes in a single direction; persistence, determination, and consistency.
Thanks to Tiny Forests on Tumblr for the information on glacier mice!
Home and Hearth
A little moss meditation you can try at home…
Settle yourself in the way that suits you. You could listen to relaxing music, watch a candle flame, or simply sit and breathe at your own pace. When you feel like the troubles of the day are dropping away from you, take a moment to imagine some moss. It’s thriving in damp conditions, so it has longer growths pulling up from the flattish, green, springy base. It’s like a tiny woodland — and now you are tiny too. You are wandering in a mossy forest, feeling the bounce of the spongy floor beneath your feet. Each tall growth is like a tree, stretching away toward a sky you can’t see from here. You can see so many shades of green and a tinge of coppery brown here and there. You notice small creatures wandering in the distance, perhaps a tardigrade, snuffling quietly at the green, soft ground as it ambles its way through the mystical woodland.
You pause at a natural gap in the tall “trees” and sit upon the floor of the forest. The softness under your hands is both firm and giving, reminding you of the importance of flexibility while retaining consistent boundaries. The air is moist and sweet, and reminds you to simply breathe or be in the moment. The sounds are gentle and soothing, reminding you of the importance of looking after your sensory needs and creating pleasant, nurturing spaces for yourself.
Spend as long as you need in this space and take what you need from this experience. When you’re ready, move back along the path you took, until you’re ready to grow back to normal size. Once the moss is tiny again, open your eyes and relax. Drink some water and, if you can, record your experiences in a journal.
If you struggle with visualization, you could try a similar exercise with actual moss to look at. Instead of trying to imagine the mossy forest, observe the moss (even an image would do) and see how the tiny fronds and growths echo the shapes of a larger woodland. Talk to yourself, telling yourself what you would do if you were a tiny person in that forest. If you’re not comfortable speaking out loud like this, you could write it down like a meditative story of your journey into the moss.
I Never Knew…
Moss is an effective way of understanding the level of pollution in an area. It responds to CO2, acid rain, and various types of water pollution. This helps ecologists understand local environmental health better — plus, moss can be used to stabilise soil, prevent erosion, and improve the nitrogen content within certain ecosystems.
