Schistotega pennate, the Goblin's Gold, is unlike any other moss. It is a paragon of minimalism, simple in means, rich in ends... Sunlight in caves is much too scarce for Schistotega to afford much in the way of architecture. Leaves are a bit of a luxury in a spare environment. So, in place of leaves and shoots, Goblins' Gold is reduced to a fragile mat of translucent green filaments, the protonema. The shimmering presence of Shistostega is created entirely by this weft of nearly invisible threads crisscrossing the surface of the moist soil. It glows in the dark, or rather it glitters in the half light of places which scarcely feel the sun.
Just for a moment, in the pause before the earth rotates us again into night, the cave is flooded with light. The near-nothingness of Schistotega erupts in a shower of sparkles, like green glitter spilled on the rug at Christmas. Each cell of the protonema refracts the light, transforming it to the sugar that will sustain it through the coming darkness. And then, within minutes, it's gone. All its needs are met in an ephemeral moment at the end of the day when the sun aligns with the mouth of the cave.
An Onondaga elder once explained to me that plants come to us when they are needed. If we show them respect by using them and appreciating their gifts they will grow stronger. They will stay with us as long as they are respected. But if we forget about them, they will leave.
Excerpts from Robin Wall Kimmerer's Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Oregon State University Press: 2003).
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