Mossy gravestone

27 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in bryophytes, nature, plants

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Graves may not be everyone’s idea of wildlife-friendly spaces but I’ve found cemeteries and grave-filled churchyards can hold some interesting, often unusual flora and fauna.

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Mosses grow very easily on next to nothing. They have no roots, and only need moisture and shady conditions to grow.

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I presume the indentations of the inscription on the gravestone, though shallow, would be deep enough to accumulate a little moisture and a modicum of dusty soil, and that’s all these little mosses required to thrive. The churchyard is also well shaded by hedges and tall trees, as well as the church building itself – again, perfect for the mosses.

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Some people might think mosses and lichens should be scrubbed off gravestones or sprayed with chemicals to kill them. Not me. I can think of nothing nicer than to have my gravestone be home to little beauties like these, and my personal details spelled out in mosses.

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Common wall mosses

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in bryophytes

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British mosses, bryophytes, Grey-cushioned grimmia, Grimmia pulvinata, mosses, mosses on stone walls, Tortula muralis, Wall screw-moss

The bryophytes are a whole division of the plant kingdom that I’ve tended to avoid, apart from taking the odd photo of ‘moss looking gorgeous with raindrops’.

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It’s time to change that, and I’m starting simple. These are two of the mosses commonly found on our local stone walls. First up, Wall screw-moss (Tortula muralis), which the excellent Nature Spot website tells me is ‘the commonest moss on many mortared or base-rich walls – both of brick and stone … It also grows on concrete, roof tiles and other man-made structures, as well as outcrops of natural, base-rich rock’. The webpage also has some key identification features and some excellent photos.

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Growing next to the Wall screw-moss on a local wall, I also found the lovely hemispherical tufts of Grey-cushioned grimmia (Grimmia pulvinata), the most common of the Grimmias. Once again, Nature Spot has a detailed list of ID features to check. Mosses can be tricky to identify so my self-education in this field will progress very slowly, I’m sure, but I have had these two verified so it’s a positive start.

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Big picture, small picture

17 Saturday Feb 2018

Posted by sconzani in fungi, lichen, nature, parks

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Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, fungi, lichen, lichen on wood, mosses, sculpture trail

The big picture:
a group of wooden posts, incised with rune-like writing, once part of a sculpture trail around Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.

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The small picture:
an incredible diversity of lichens, mosses and fungi in a surprising array of subtle textures and hues.

Bryophytes and lichens

11 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in lichen, nature, parks, trees, winter

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bryophytes, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, lichen on trees, lichens, mosses, mosses on trees

Over the summer months my eye has been distracted by all the little creatures that move – butterflies and moths, dragonflies and beetles, and all manner of other insects – but now that it’s winter and those creatures have mostly disappeared (you’ll notice one crept in to one of my photos!), my eye is again drawn to the more static beauty that surrounds me. Take, for example, this small grove of trees at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.

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I spent perhaps an hour here the other day, looking in wonder at the incredible variety of tiny lichens and bryophytes to be found on the tree trunks. I haven’t tried to identify these but I’m determined to return to them over the coming months to see which I can put names to and find out more about. For now, I just want to share their beauty.