Location Taken: Frankfort, Michigan
Time Taken: May 2008
I like moss and lichen on bark. It’s so nice and green and damp. A good kind of damp, mind you.
A large part of it is just that if the climate supports moss growing on trees, it’s frequently a climate that works for me. I like cool, green, damp climates. They’re comfortable.
It also usually requires an older tree. Younger trees have smoother bark to help keep parasites and the like away during those crucial early years. It’s only as the tree matures that it develops a rougher bark for, um, whatever evolutionary benefit such bark imparts. It might be a necessary part of having a thick bark, with outer layers that fall off if damaged, or something.
I really don’t know as much as I’d like about trees. Most of my botany knowledge comes from reading books from the library, and well, there aren’t many people writing good books about trees. There’s a few field guides and the like, but they don’t exactly make for enthralling reading. Most of the good botany books are on flashier plants, like flowers and crops and poisonous plants.
The humble, moss-covered tree is just too common and everyday to attract enough scientists for that small percentage of writer-scientists to crop up in the field or something. Pity, really. This world needs a lot more good scientists who are also good writers. Or good film editors, or good podcasters, or whatever your favorite medium for learning science is.
You do have a favorite science-learning medium, right?
