When I was an environmental science student at The Evergreen State College, I spent a lot of time wandering through the forests of Olympia and the foothills of the Olympic mountains. Until this time, my recognition of mosses among the rest of the forest was as diminutive as the plants themselves. Their tiny leaves, and subtle complexity found little value in my landscape-scale perspective of things. In the fall of 2009 our class took a field trip out to an old growth portion of the Olympics and my perspective began to change. Rather than walk through the old-growth on a trail, we were directed to find a spot off trail, sit and observe the immediate area around us and ask questions based on your observations. I remember appreciating the spatial arrangement of the surrounding western hemlock and Douglas fir and the dangling Usnea lichen motioning in the wind. As time went on, I found my attention keen on my immediate surroundings - the hemlock seedlings, the deliquescent fungus, and the undulating terrain of the forest floor.  Among these small inhabitants of the forest floor, I also began to notice the diversity in community morphology of the mosses around me. There were some that looked like cushions, some like thin strings, others like fans, and others like turfs. Each type of moss seemed preferential to its substrate and exposure, expressing the minute characteristics of a massive place.  It was with these few observations of fundamental ecology that my fascination for these plants began to surface.  Since then I have received training  in bryophyte taxonomy and ecology, and continue to study this fascinating world of mosses.

    My hope is that the information, images and resources shared on this site might inspire a deeper understanding of moss and the spaces that surround it. 

This is the carpet moss, Hylocomium splendens - the first moss I became familiar with.