September 2014 Desktop Calendar

We are off on vacation this week visiting friends and family in New York and Connecticut. On one of our hikes we came across this great patch of Leucobryum. I couldn't decide which shot I liked better for the calendar so I put it together for both. Enjoy!

September Desktop Calendar - Option #1

September Desktop Calendar - Option #2

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

3 - If the image does not fit your desktop neatly, you may have to adjust the image (Mac: System Preferences - Desktop and Screen Saver - Desktop; Windows: Control Panel - Display - Desktop) and choose "Fill screen" as the display mode of your background image.

Deep Fried Moss

I was incredibly excited to find out about the Danish* restaurant Noma serving fried moss on the menu! My sister heard the story on a podcast from the America's Test Kitchen. In the show, host Christopher Kimball interviews René Redzepi, the chef of Noma, during Segment #2 and the fried mosses are briefly mentioned at the end of their interview. Considering this restaurant is located in Copenhagen* and is on the extremely pricy end I don't think that I will be eating fried mosses there any time soon. But I really wanted to get a look at a plate and I did some hunting around online. 

There are a number of people who have taken photos of their plates and have posted them up online. I didn't want to repost personal photos, so I linked to a few of them that you can check out below.

 Plate #1 - Plate #2 - Plate #3 -Plate #4 - Plate #5

After looking at a few of the plates did you discover the truth? It is not in fact a fried bryophyte, but is a fried lichen! Oh the mossy-misnomers. One of the common names for the lichen Cladonia rangiferina is reindeer moss and that is the organism that is fried and intended for eating. There are, however, mosses on the plates. Many of the plates look to be covered in Leucobryum, the pin cushion moss. Serving platters are typically washed and reused. Do you think they rinse off the mosses and then used them to serve the next customer. I would hate to hear that they tossed out the mosses after a single serving.

Leucobryum

I also wonder if anyone tries to eat the bryophyte mosses off the plate? If they did, I don't think that they would find them too tasty or with much nutritional value. Not many animals eat mosses. Just a few northern creatures, such as caribou and lemmings. Based on caribou stomach contents, they mainly eat mosses during the winter and probably just to fill hungry stomachs. I remember a great graphic showing the percentages of items found in the stomachs of caribou throughout the year with a spike in the mosses during the winter, but I couldn't locate the study. If this reference rings a bell for anyone please drop a message in the comments. 

* An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly locate Noma in Norway. The restaurant Noma is actually located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Thanks to the commenter who pointed out the geographic error.

Moss Stickers

I was cleaning out my office drawers and came across a mossy item that I had not seen in months. (My office drawers tend to become a disaster over the course of the semester.) It was a sticker book made from my moss photos, many of which have been used on this blog. The company that I used is at www.moo.com and is based out of the UK. I had heard about them from somewhere and really liked the idea of making a sticker book. The books come with 16 perforated pages and you can upload a large number of images. I think that I could have had every sticker in the book of a different photo. Instead I picked a set of 12 that I liked, because I knew I would be giving them away. I passed out sheets of these stickers to my labmates and many of them ended up on the fronts of their laboratory notebooks. It wasn't exactly where I had imagined them sticking, but they seem to have enjoyed them. I even have a couple of sheets left! Now I just have to decide where to stick them...

The Stickers shown in the photo from upper left to right: Polytrichum gametophyte stems with fall leaves, Polytrichum stems up close, and Funaria hygrometica. Second Row: Leucobryum mixed with Dicranum, Leucobryum tuft, and Leucobryum upclose. Lower sheet, top row: Anacamptodon capsule, Tetraphis gemmae cups, and Sphagnum. And finally Sphagnum leaf cross section, Tetraphis peristome teeth at the top of the capsule, and Tetraphis gemmae.

Saiho-ji Temple: The Moss Temple

While in Japan I visited the city of Kyoto and the Saiho-ji Temple. This is a Buddhist Temple that has approximately 120 different species growing on the grounds. Reservations are required and there is a 3000 yen fee, but it is well worth the money.

The mosses were a little crispy, seeing as how I visited during the dry hot part of the summer. I think that this temple would be even better to visit during the rainy season in the spring and earlier summer. I am not quite sure that I saw 120 species of mosses, but they covered all the available surfaces on the grounds.

One of my favorite parts were the grounds keepers who were sweeping the leaves off of the mosses and keeping them tidy. They were using traditional brooms, which I thought was a great touch. I would highly recommend it as a great place to see mosses, if you are ever in Japan. However it is not the place to go collecting. I had the urge to put some of the moss in my pocket, but I thought that would be frowned upon. So I resisted and instead took many photos to remember the visit.

A tree base surrounded by Leucobryum sp.

Identifying Japanese Mosses

I have been walking around Japan for the past three weeks looking at all the amazing plants and having no idea what they are called. Ok I am exaggerating a little, I do have some idea. I can identify most of the flowering plants to family. For the ferns and bryophytes I can get down to a genus. So I asked Dr. Hasebe if there are any Japanese field guides that are in English. I have learned some key Japanese phrases but am in no shape to read full sentences composed of Japanese characters. He pointed me toward the many books that line the walls in the tea/lunch room next to the labo (that is the shortened form of laboratory in Japanese, I think that name is really fun!). Two of them are small field guides in Japanese: a Field Guide for Bryophytes and a Yama-Kei Field Book entitled,しだ・こけ. Both of them are filled with great color pictures and the former has the species names written out in roman letters, which is quite helpful. There is also the Flora of Japan (1965) that covers the vascular plants of the country. This book is in english, but unfortunately there are no drawings and only a few black and white images. This book is quite large and definitely not for the field. I will probably start snagging pieces of plants while I am in the field and bringing them back to the labo to figure out what their names.

But the books that I am the most excited about are the Illustrated Moss Flora of Japan. This is a five volume set that covers all of the ~900 mosses growing in Japan. It is written in English and has keys start at the genus level and end at the species with description of each taxon. There are line sketches for many of the species that show all of the little details that are needed to confirm an identification. This flora is published by the Hattori Botanical Laboratory and is available for purchase online.

Up to this point I have just been taking photos of the bryophytes without identifying them to species. For example I knew that this was a species of Leucobryum, but I had no idea whether they have the same species in Japan as those in the USA or if they have entirely different species. There are two species of Leucobryum in the US (L. glaucum and L. albidum). However in Japan they have six species, including one overlap with the US, L. glaucum. Unfortunately I just took a photo of this little patch and did not collect any, but now that I have the Japanese Moss Flora at my disposal I will be doing some collecting!

Off to Study Mosses in Japan

Well this is my last day in Connecticut before heading off to Japan tomorrow. My laundry is done, the lab is tidy, and some of my fabulous fellow graduate students will be taking care of my mosses here in Connecticut while I am gone. I still have a full day ahead of me with packing and cleaning my apartment, but the anxiety about the trip is starting to fade away and I am finally getting excited about the whole adventure.

One of the items that is quite important when meeting people professionally in Japan are business cards. Thy are called meishi in Japan. There is a formal method of meishi exchange that includes bowing. Here is a link to the entire story regarding meishi exchange. Hopefully I will not completely botch the exchange process and I can avoid embarassment.

Of course the business cards that I ordered got tied up in the printing and shipping process and will not arrive before I leave. Hopefully I will be able to have them sent to me so that I can use them while I am there.

I have posted versions of my business card in english and the one the my Japanese research advisor translated into english. The translation is pretty rough. Looking up Japanese characters is not easy. It says Connecticut University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on the first line. Doctoral University student on the second line. The third line is my name. The prevaling comment that I have gotten is that it is pretty fun that my name in Japanese has two smiley faces. : ) The following lines are my contact information at the National Institute for Basic Biology.

On the at home front, the moss walk this past Saturday went well. We had six participants who came on the walk. We didn't walk very far, which is usually the case when looking at mosses, but everyone had a good time. Since everyone on the walk was new to mosses I introduced several of the common genera that can be found in Connecticut.

Atrichum Hypnum Leucobryum Polytrichum Plagiomnium Sphagnum

Well that is all for now and I will next be posting from Japan. Wish me luck.

Moss Poetry

Here is another poem from the author of last week's Sphagnum poem. This poem has some great visual descriptions and it also has a few gruesome parts so be forewarned. In the poem Leucobryum is described as turquoise colored. However my photo is more of a minty, light green. This is a photo of Leucobryum albidum. I think of Leucobryum glaucum as darker in color and probably closer to his description.

Leucobryum glaucum by Giles Watson (October 2004)

Split cases of beech nuts form a crust six inches thick,
the insides squirrel-gnawed, their curled spines turning
into mould. Crows claw the branches; buzzards clamour,
their nest at the centre of this wood. The distant chunter
of mallards, half-tamed for shooting. In the grass, a snare.

Cushions of Leucobryum, turquoise coloured and crisp,
quieten my tread to a dry crunching, hunched like the backs
of hedgehogs. Beside one, a dirty-grey skull—a weasel’s—
cleaved half-open. Cartridge cases encased in soil.

And though gunshots have defiled the sacred space,
And crows hang, inverted, from wires, by night
the Leucobryum gleams where moonlight catches it,
and the fox pads past, avoids the snare by habit
long established. Dew falls. Spore cases rise,
the calyptra hooked a little, like tiny Devil’s horns.

Click here for a link to the original posting of this poem and other botanical poetry.
Below the fold is a blurb from the author about his inspiration for this poem.

"Source material. Leucobryum glaucum forms high-domed cushions on acid soils, and is capable of withstanding long dry spells. When dry it turns a turquoise colour, or even goes completely white. It rapidly revives when moistened. Fruiting such as that described in the poem is a comparatively rare occurrence; the plant more often reproduces through rhizoids which grow from the upper leaves and develop into small tufts which become detached and independent. See Arthur L. Jewell, The Observer’s Book of Mosses and Liverworts, London, 1955, p. 57. I lived for a year in Dropmore, near Burnham, in Buckinghamshire, and observed this moss regularly in the neighbouring Bristles Wood, which was unfortunately the domain of a particularly brutal gamekeeper at the time. Despite his depredations, a remarkable diversity of wildlife was to be observed within the wood, especially at night."

Moss Poetry

Mosses also serve as poetry muses. This poem was brought to my attention during discussions of my blog in my Science Communication Seminar. I think that it is a great verse and presents vivid imagery of moss. Enjoy!

Moss-Gathering by Theodore Roethke

To loosen with all ten fingers held wide and limber
And lift up a patch, dark-green, the kind for lining cemetery baskets,
Thick and cushiony, like an old-fashioned doormat,
The crumbling small hollow sticks on the underside mixed with roots,
And wintergreen berries and leaves still stuck to the top,—
That was moss-gathering.
But something always went out of me when I dug loose those carpets
Of green, or plunged to my elbows in the spongy yellowish moss of the marshes:
And afterwards I always felt mean, jogging back over the logging road,
As if I had broken the natural order of things in that swampland;
Disturbed some rhythm, old and of vast importance,
By pulling off flesh from the living planet;
As if I had committed, against the whole scheme of life, a desecration.

The Mother-In-Law's Cushion

This is another one of the names for Leucobryum albidum, as mentioned on Monday. The story goes that this moss can grow in patches that are large enough to use as a seat on the forest floor. When you touch the top of this moss cushion it feels soft and dry. However you should only offer this seat to your mother-in-law. (Two assumptions of this tale are that you have a mother-in-law and that you like playing tricks on her.) When she sits down on this moss she will experience one of the benefits of growing in a cushion shaped colony. All of the individuals packed together function as a sponge and store water within the colony, so that there is moisture available for the moss to undergo photosynthesis even when it is dry. Having sat on this cushion your mother-in-law will end up with a very wet rear. Thus Leucobryum albidum also has been called the mother-in-law's cushion.

A Moss of Many Names

I have heard this moss species referred to as the white moss, the pincushion moss and mother-in-law's cushion. The scientific name for this plant is Leucobryum albidum. Based on the etymology of its name, white moss is probably the most appropriate. The prefix of the generic name comes from the Greek word leuco or leuko (spelling varies) which means white. {As I read over this post for a final check I was reminded of the father in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He has a habit of connecting all words in English back to Greek roots. Just thought that I would share so that you too can read the post with a fun Greek accent.} The specific epithet albidum comes from the Latin word albus, also meaning white. So the scientific name tells us that this is a white, white bryum-like moss and the name describes this plant quite well. This moss has a distinctive white sheen and can be found on rotten logs or nestled up next to exposed tree roots as is this patch. I would say that it is one of the whitest moss that you will see in the forests of Connecticut, which makes this species easily recognized. Stay tuned for a discussion of an alternative name for this moss, the mother-in-law's cushion.