{"id":1632,"date":"2020-11-13T07:48:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T07:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepoetryofscience.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=1632"},"modified":"2020-11-13T07:48:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T07:48:04","slug":"a-rolling-wind-gathers-the-moss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/thepoetryofscience\/1632\/a-rolling-wind-gathers-the-moss\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rolling Wind Gathers the Moss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spread out like a living
\nblanket of dewy jade,
\nthe fire moss basks
\nin its ubiquity.
\nVerdant carpets that
\nstretch out
\nacross the forest,
\nover the pavement,
\nand up,
\nup,
\non to the rooftops
\nof our fabricated
\ntreetop homes.<\/p>\n

Strips of mottled green
\nthat lie in rootless
\nordered bands,
\ncarried across oceans
\non unseen hands –
\ntheir delicate touch
\nbrushing off
\nthe hidden geographies
\nof this
\nturbulent dispersal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ceratodon purpureus (Image Credit: Kristian Peters via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This poem is inspired by recent research<\/a>, which has found that global wind systems are responsible for mosses becoming one of our planet’s most widely distributed plants.<\/p>\n

Mosses are any of at least 12,000 species of small, spore-bearing land plants. They are one of the oldest plant groups on Earth and are distributed throughout the world except in areas of saltwater. Most mosses grow in damp, shaded places, but they are extremely resilient organisms that can survive in almost any condition, thriving in forests, rooftops, pavements, and even polar climates. However, exactly how mosses have come to occupy almost every nook and cranny of our planet is not entirely clear. In this new study, researchers have shown that there is a remarkable overlap between global wind patterns and the way in which one species of moss has spread over time.<\/p>\n

Ceratodon pupureus<\/em> (which goes by the more common names of fire moss, redshank, and purple horn toothed moss, depending on geographic location) is one of the world\u2019s most widespread moss species, with its high tolerance to pollutants meaning that it is common in many urban and industrial environments. In this study, researchers used genetic samples from fire moss collected from dried plant collections (or herbaria), from around the world. These genetic samples were then used to build an extensive evolutionary tree, and by comparing this to global wind patterns, the researchers were able to show that these global patterns were responsible for similar species of moss being observed in distinct latitudinal bands. For example, moss spores from North America are likely blown by the prevailing Westerlies across the Atlantic to Denmark. As well as helping to determine the provenance and distribution of mosses, these findings could also help to explain the spread of other organisms, such as bacteria and fungi which are also spread via microscopic airborne particles transported by the wind.<\/p>\n