When it comes to plants, there are some that really command attention, like majestic redwoods or elegant roses. And then…. there's moss, which doesn't usually get a lot of love, or even get noticed at all.
But in Portland, Oregon, students at Lewis & Clark College have been trying to change that with their annual Moss Appreciation Week: a five-day festival held every February to celebrate and get up-close with the humble green carpet students walk past every day.
Moss walks, talks, and even valentines
The event got its start a few years back, when a Lewis & Clark student spent the summer working at Portland State University's Herbarium and fell in love with mosses, according to Parvaneh Abbaspour, Lewis & Clark's science librarian. Abbaspour helped the student set up an exhibit at the library and has been working with the school's Natural History Club to run Moss Appreciation Week since then. The festival is now in its seventh year.
"Moss is something that's underappreciated," says Madeline Jones, one of the student organizers of this year's event. "So we're taking some time to appreciate the moss that makes our campus beautiful."
Moss Appreciation Week is packed with events both scientific and downright silly. Moss walks, moss talks, moss movies, crafting moss-themed Valentines (it's hard to resist "I Lichen You A Lot" puns), which students look forward to every year. Some students dress up as moss.
Others pass out moss-covered cupcakes (covered with crumbles of matcha cake to look like moss). There are moss terrarium building workshops, and a "gastropod derby," where snails and slugs (for whom moss is a nice moist microclimate) "race" down PVC chutes toward a yeast-soaked clump of moss at the finish line.
There's also a moss petting zoo – a table with a few dozen moss samples set up in the library, showing the full diversity of mossy forms.
"It kind of makes me think of like, if you had the opportunity to pet a muppet, this is what you would encounter," laughs Robin Anderson, the library worker tasked with misting the samples every few hours to keep them moist.
"I don't think there is a moss with a bad texture," says student Saph Leeper. " Like this could be like a rug. And honestly, I would buy a rug like this."
'It takes some work to lean in and look'
Watching a bunch of students lavish attention on moss for a whole week begs the question: why?
According to Jenna Ekwealor, a researcher who runs San Francisco State University's moss lab, and spoke at last year's Moss Appreciation Week, it's well deserved. She says moss is a really special plant that more people should know more about. Although Ekwealor argues that mosses, like all organisms, should be appreciated for themselves, she is happy to run through the greatest hits of what makes the plants particularly compelling.
"They're tiny plants, but they're different from most plants we see," explains Ekwealor. "They don't have any roots… so they take in all of their water straight through their leaves."
Ekwealor says because mosses don't really need soil, and because they can survive long droughts, they grow where a lot of other plants can't. Although people often think of mosses as the plants of rainy places (like the Pacific Northwest), they're actually found everywhere – from the highest mountaintops to the driest valleys. And they play an important role in ecosystems.
"They prevent erosion and runoff," says Ekwealor. "They act like sponges out there and they can purify or clean air and water."
She also says mosses can change our perspective. For example, their ability to go dormant and regrow makes her think about resilience. And the fact that mosses can reproduce clonally, and form a unit with other lichens and organisms, makes her think philosophically about what it means to be an individual.
Plus, they're ancient. Mosses have been around for 400 million years, according to Ekwealor. And she says a moss-like ancestor helped create the oxygen levels that made human life possible. On top of all that, there's still a lot about them we don't know.
So, with such a fascinating resume… why don't more people care about mosses?
"Part of the reason that they have been sort of neglected or underappreciated over time is simply because they're small," theorizes Ekwealor. "And it takes some work to lean in and look at this tiny thing."
Focusing on the little things
At Moss Appreciation Week, an entire campus is leaning in to look at the world of moss. "It's a nice little escape this week," laughs organizer Kenji Yamamoto. "Just to focus on the little things, and slow down to the pace of moss, if you will."
Gathering mosses for the terrarium-building workshop, sophomore Deenie Bulyalert acknowledges that the event is, indeed, goofy. But it's also more than that.
" I think other people can view it as like, 'oh, it's so silly to kneel down and look at plants. They exist every day in our life.' But I think it is so profound, because it's little things that we don't even notice every single day."
Ekwealor notes that taking stock of the little things doesn't get rid of life's challenges. "But it does help me put things into balance, and realize that there's still a lot here on this earth, a lot of life, a lot of beauty, that is enduring all of the hardships with us."
You don't need Moss Appreciation Week to find that beauty – you can step outside any week, almost anywhere, and find it.
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