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A Moss Girl’s Guide to Japanese Moss Viewing
- drunkonvinyl 11y agoscotland has GRRREAT moss as well.
- arethuza 11y agoFrom Scottish Natural Heritage "Naturally Scottish - Mosses and Liverworts": http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/publications/search-the-catalogue/publication-detail/?id=385 http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/publica...
- placeybordeaux 11y ago> The author, lost in the invisible world of moss emphasis mine.
- magicbuzz 11y agoI lived in Japan and there is some great moss there, particularly in the very old temples. But I think the moss in New Zealand's old growth forests is better - some of the moss I saw there was almost luminescent.
- djsumdog 11y agoI wish I had known about this when I lived in NZ (was there for over two years). Yes, the greens in NZ are quite amazing. I even had a nice camera, but I never once thought about taking some maco shots of moss. I miss out on some great opportunities to photo these little mini-forests.
- Nadya 11y agoWhen I visited Japan I was surprised when my language partner's son had such a huge interest in moss of all things. Where I live in the U.S, moss is largely an unwanted thing akin to mold. Yet here was a man telling me the names of each kind of moss we passed and telling me certain characteristics of them. I feigned my interest in moss as best as I could. I understand its implications in rock/moss gardens and when a colony is maintained properly it does look rather nice... but to me it is still just moss. I have a feeling that I simply don't "get it".
- Panoramix 11y agoI freaking love moss since I can remember. I'd visit the hell out of all these places. I don't know why. There's something about their shade of green that is shouting "Life".
- pnathan 11y agoI don't see it as much different than obsessing over the different varieties of hardware in a computer; it's a form of nerdery, but directed at natural philosophy rather than made items.
- Steko 11y ago> directed at natural philosophy Beetles are also big in Japan as the kids say. Bigger than moss even.
- lubujackson 11y agoMakes me think of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle where Newton and other scientists of the time are doing fantastic work alongside pulling off butterfly wings and basically nerding out on nature.
- gertef 11y ago> Where I live in the U.S, moss is largely an unwanted thing akin to mold. I think that's due to the US attitude that nature is a thing to be controlled, not nurtured. Moss grows in its natural way, on top of other things, not in its own little individual pot or plot.
- Nadya 11y agoI think you may have a point - but national reserves and American's love of camping in the "uncontrolled wilderness" is also a strong counterpoint. I was also careful to specify "where I live". The U.S is rather large and I'm sure moss gardens are popular in at least one region. Something I find people often forgetting is just how massive the U.S is. Including the people who live in it!
- ck2 11y agoDon't ever change Japan, best kind of weird sometimes. (well except that suicide rate, that could afford to change)
- pnathan 11y agoIn the past 6 months, Seattle has gone from near-drought condition to very wet. I can only describe the experience of watching the mosses in the area around my apartment building go from dessicated to luminescent green as sublime. Particularly visible has been the mosses that live right off my back porch. In August, they had turned the color of dirt; today, they are a particularly aggressive almost-neon green with hints of yellow. The concrete around a (rather sad) tree and bush by the entrance has gone from a pale grey to a green-grey as the mosses have come back. I can quite fathom why mosses are a big thing! edit: if someone has read "Mosses, my dear friends"[1], I'd be curious as to the general content, whether photos, or details, or a travelogue, etc. I don't read Japanese, sadly. :-/ http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B1%E3%81%AF%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A1-%E8%97%A4%E4%BA%95-%E4%B9%85%E5%AD%90/dp/4898153097 http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B1%E3%81%AF%E3%81%A8...
- Avshalom 11y agoThe waterfalls in the northwest make for absolutely stunning mossy walls. Oneota down in the Columbia Gorge is amazing in the summer (possibly also the winter but it's a bit cold to be traipsing up a river then)
- c22 11y agoFor the last couple years I've been having fun building my own moss walls with this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertufa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertufa
- girzel 11y agoI come from Seattle, but haven't lived there for nearly two decades. For some reason, I seem to have spent the intervening time in desert-like climates (central California, the Middle East, northern China). The dampness of Seattle -- in particular the proliferation of moss and fern -- has become a symbol to me of life and health. I remember once being in Wadi Rum, in Jordan, and amid the totally parched desert finding a deep crevice in a cliff, and way back in the heart of it there was a tiny, tiny trickle of dampness, and maybe a couple of square feet of moss and fern. Just the tiniest little patch, but delicate and absolutely beautiful. And another time being in the Hoh Rain Forest, on the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle, and looking at a little rill of water that cut through the soil, edged with a profusion of overhanging ferns and mosses, the water completely crystal, and not a hint of death or corruption anywhere. Even the rot was full of life. How lucky I am to come from a place where water really does mean life! (And not like the Amazon, where there is water, and life, but much of it is the kind of life that can poison you or inject eggs under your skin or swim up your urethra.)
- reustle 11y agoI recently watched this episode of Japanology [1] about moss. There is a really interesting and refreshing fascination about moss over there. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBIdOWd9qEM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBIdOWd9qEM
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- Steko 11y agoIn Japan even the national anthem can't resist the charms of moss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimigayo#Lyrics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimigayo#Lyrics
- devindotcom 11y agoHeh. This is fun. At the garden by Kikuchi-Monji (is that even close to correct? going from memory) - the 'golden temple' in Kyoto - I found this great little moss garden labeled "Very Important Moss (like VIP)": https://www.flickr.com/photos/devindotcom/2201308564/in/album-72157603738936368/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/devindotcom/2201308564/in/albu...
- Nadya 11y agoKinkakuji (金閣寺) is what you are thinking of. I don't think you meant to reference 菊一文字 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiku-ichimonji https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiku-ichimonji )
- petke 11y agoI think moss is beautiful. I transplanted a lot of it to my stone garden (with permission from the owner of the nearby forest). In England where it rains a lot, they use chemicals to try and kill any moss in their lawns. Id be happy if my lawn was nothing but moss though.
- krylon 11y agoOne magical thing some people can do is write about something in a way that it becomes interesting, fascinating to the reader. I seriously did not expect this, but this was a really interesting article. The nice thing about moss is, if it's rainy at all (and where I live, it so is), it can grow pretty much anywhere, including my balcony. Guess I'll see that moss on my balcony with different eyes now.
- malingo 11y agoThe moss in Iceland is also pretty spectacular. While hiking the Falljokull glacier this past summer I learned about "glacier mice": http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/earth/glacier-mice-offer-a-micro-habitat.html?referer= http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/earth/glacier-m...
- dllu 11y agoAfter reading this I decided to go out and take pictures of moss. Here's a picture I took: http://i.imgur.com/rovioAa.jpg http://i.imgur.com/rovioAa.jpg near 49.055969, -122.238218. It's quite relaxing but my tripod got dirty due to the mud.
- kseistrup 11y agoBeautiful! Is the thing halfway towards one o'clock the hat of a fungus or the sporangium of a moss?
- cgm616 11y agoVery interesting: reading this on my phone, the header image moves with a parallax effect when the phone is tilted.
- davydka 11y agoI also noticed this. Very cool!
- nimz 11y agoTo anyone who found this link interesting, I highly recommend picking up "The Signature of All Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert (yes the author who wrote Eat, Pray, Love). The Signature of All Things is historical fiction novel about a botanist who is fascinated by moss and her research leads her to discover evolution independently of Darwin.
- JacobAldridge 11y agoBought it for my beautiful wife for Christmas! And she's enjoying it.
- mark_l_watson 11y agoI enjoyed that. I live in the mountains of Central Arizona and am basically addicted to hiking. On hikes I keep an eye out for lichen growths on the side of large rocks, usually in the shade. Really beautiful and very diverse in colors and textures.