Field of Science

Poetry that Mentions Moss

This is an excerpt of the poem Cloudberry Summer by Amy Clampitt. I have not read any of her poetry, besides this excerpt. I just heard about this mossy mentioning through the grapevine and decided to pass it along.
This poem can be found in its entirety in the poetry collection entitled 'What the Light Was Like'.

First verse of the poem Cloudberry Summer by Amy Clampitt

First ventured into
in mid-July, the bog's sodden hollow
muffled the uproar of the shore
it hunkered in the lee of. Wrung residues
of sphagnum moss steeped in self-
manufactured acids stained the habitat's
suffusing waters brown...

The biology in this poem is completely accurate. Sphagnum moss actually makes the water that it lives in more acidic by releasing hydrogen ions and thus decreasing the pH of the bog water. Amazing, poetry and biology all wrapped into one!

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