WS#3: Marvellous Moss!
The cache, a camo-taped preform tube, is hidden behind a wall covered with this common but fascinating and vital plant alongside the riverside trail.
To reach the cache location: (from the west) park @ or near N 53 54.957 W 1 44.698 on the approach road to the old mill complex and after securing your car, cross the road and pick up the small trail heading across the top of the woodland, down to and along the river.
(from the east) park @ or near N 53 54.578 W 1 43.635 in the lay-by and pass through the gate at its west end into the field and across to the trail running alongside the river.
What is the link between nappies, carbon-capture, insulation, bread and Scotch whisky . . . moss!
The 'amphibians of the plant world' - mosses, which live on land but need water to reproduce - are a group of some 12,000 species (over 600 in UK) of small flowerless plants that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. They first appeared in fossil record 320 million years ago.
The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients.
Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are usually 2-100 mm tall, though some species are much larger. Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 60 cm high.
Traditional Uses: pre-industrial societies made use of the mosses growing in their areas. Laplanders, North American tribes, and other circumpolar people used mosses for bedding.
Mosses have also been used as insulation both for dwellings and in clothing. Dried moss was used in some Nordic countries and Russia as an insulator between logs in log cabins, and tribes of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada used moss to fill chinks in wooden longhouses. Circumpolar and alpine peoples have used mosses for insulation in boots and mittens. Otzithe Iceman had moss-packed boots.
The capacity dried mosses have to absorb fluids, has made their use practical for both medical and culinary
purposes. North American tribes used mosses for diapers, wound dressing, and menstrual fluid absorption. US and Canadian Pacific NorthWest tribes used mosses to clean salmon before drying, and packed wet moss into pit ovens for steaming camas bulbs. Food storage and boiling baskets were also packed with mosses.
Many birds (eg. blackbirds, thrushes and robins) use soft moss as one of their nesting materials.
Commercial Uses: there is a substantial market in mosses gathered from the wild. The uses for intact moss are principally in the florist trade and for home decoration. Decaying Sphagnum moss also the major component of peat, which is 'mined' for use as a fuel, as a horticultural soil additive, and in smoking malt in the production of Scotch whisky.
Sphagnum moss is also harvested while still growing and is dried out to be used in nurseries and horticulture as a plant growing medium.
Some Sphagnum mosses can absorb up to 20 times their own weight in water. In WW1 they were used as 1st aid dressings on soldiers' wounds, as they are said to absorb liquids 3 time faster than cotton, retain liquids better, better distribute liquids uniformly throughout themselves, and are cooler, softer, and be less irritating. It is also claimed to have antibacterial properties. The Tavistock Times Gazette of 4 June 2014 has an interesting article 'Moss miracles' on the harvesting and use of moss during WW1. No less a person than King Edward VIII was the sponsor and patron of the Sphagnum Moss Collection Depot located in Princeton near Dartmoor - the source of the moss!
In rural UK, Fontinalis antipyretica moss was traditionally used to extinguish fires as it could be found in substantial quantities in slow-moving rivers and the moss retained large volumes of water which helped extinguish the flames.
In Finland, peat mosses have been used to make bread during famines. In Mexico, moss is used as a Christmas decoration.
Mosses are sometimes used in green roofs. Advantages of mosses over higher plants in green roofs include reduced weight loads, increased water absorption, no fertilizer requirements, and high drought tolerance. Since mosses do not have true roots, they require less planting medium than higher plants with extensive root systems. With proper species selection for the local climate, mosses in green roofs require no irrigation once established and are low maintenance.
One of the most important mosses in this region is sphagnum a genus of approximately 380 species commonly known as peat moss. This is a vital 'habitat manipulator'. An October 2018 article in the Yorkshire Post reported on progress with work to restore the carbon-capturing qualities of West Yorkshire uplands degraded by decades of industrial pollution.
Acid rain and wildfires have contributed to the decline of peatland habitats (blanket bog) and their restoration should help sphagnum moss to thrive, contribute to the supply of clean drinking water and act as a useful natural flood prevention tool.
Moreover, across England, blanket bog stores more than 3 billion tonnes of carbon in the ground - which exceeds the combined capacity of all the country’s woodlands and forests. So restoration of this vital resource is a critical element in efforts to address climate change.
See here for more information on this extremely common but highly unusual plant.