Discovering Moss

My nature writing book group has been reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses and last weekend we decided to go on our own moss walk. I knew where to locate a variety of mosses but not what species they were. The five of us gathered along the Shenandoah River in the Shannondale Springs Wild Life Management Area (SSWMA) parking lot. Right off the bat we found cold bees sitting on wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) a member of the Asteraceae (Aster family). They were waiting for the air to warm up and to begin sipping nectar and doing the important job of pollination.

Long-tongued bumblebees along with butterflies, wasps and flies visit wing stems. It is also a host plant for Silvery Checkerspot butterflies (Chlosyne nycteis).

The common name came from the side wings on the stems. Once you see you will most likely remember the common name.


Another flower we found at the edge of the parking lot was White Campion. Trillium remarked that she remembers this common name because it looks like it is carrying a pack of supplies for a CAMPing trip at the base of the flower. I thought that was a good little trick to help remember. I thought of the BBC mystery series Campion adapted from the writing of Margery Allingham that I love to watch. He would always place one in his lapel.

Our final destination was the Rolling Ridge Foundation, next to SSWMA, where we set up a table and small portable microscope. We found about 10-15 different species of moss. With hand lens and the microscope we marveled at the different structures of each one.

Broom Moss – Dicranum scoparium

Fern Moss --Thuidium

I was particularly impressed with one that had twisted peristome and brought a sample home to look under my more powerful scope. I think it is in the family Tortula but I am not certain.

Peristome is a combination of the Greek words peri, meaning around and stoma, meaning mouth. So in mosses there is a little cap like an elf’s cap that is attached to the tip of the operculum (the brown stems that shoot up from the moss). When the spores are mature that tip falls off and you can see the opening called the stoma. If you look closely with a hand lens you can see that the opening is surrounded by peristome with teeth. Most of the teeth are short but in the case of the Tortula they were long and twisted. Way cool.

Down by the creek I spotted a female walking stick. It was the first female I have ever seen and had it not been walking I surely would have missed it. 

We also found lots of funnel web weavers (see Trilliums Travels) and a few mushrooms.

On the way back to the car a stick with weird insect stuff was brought to my attention. I brought it home to get a better look and I’m guessing they are Woolly Aphids a member of the Aphibidae family in the order Hemiptera.

It was a joy to spend the morning with fellow Master Naturalist making discoveries in our neck of the woods.