Moss

This time of year th eonly green things in the woods are different species of moss. There are hundreds of different species of moss in Finland, the most common one being Wall moss, seen here in the middle. Moss can survive long periods of drought even if they do not have any roots.

Here Polytrichum sp or Bear's moss as we call it in Finnish - that's the one with the cactus-like shoots. The lighter green moss here is Pleurozium schreberi, or Wall moss.

The name in Latin is derived from pleuro, which stands for ribs, porobably describing how the leaves branch from the stem like ribs from the sternum.

In Finnish this species is called Wall moss. In the old days when houses were built of logs people used this moss as insulation between the logs against the winter's frost.