This is a primary adaptation to their role as the first colonisers of the land,” she says. “There was no soil here then – nothing for roots to grab on to, and no way to conserve water – so this was an evolutionary imperative. It’s quite remarkable, though not all mosses have it. Others have evolved to live in continuously wet places.” Kimmerer is amazing at showing how the smallest of things (mosses, in the case) are interconnected with the rest of the ecological system...and humans. And how humans have disrupted the system so much, how out of balance so many of us are with nature. My own life feels strange, always, but especially now during the pandemic. Gathering Moss was both a respite from the news, and a reminder that Nature isn't and never has been "over there." It isn't separate from us. Our concrete jungle is as much a part of the system as that creek of my childhood. What a heady, terrifying, and reassuring concept. I've noticed a tendency when scientists explain their research that it feels almost incomprehensible to the outsider...but that was never the case.

Intriguing and uplifting stories of the world's oldest plants, from the revered botanist and indigenous teacher Robin Wall Kimmerer Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering moss is a mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In this series of linked personal essays, Robin Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world The moss information was fascinating. Would have read a lot more of that. The rest was built like a collection of standard "life story" essays from a beginner's writing workshop. And I have read far too many of those already.

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Hive Store Ltd 2020. (hive.co.uk) is registered in England. Company number: 07300106. VAT number: 444950437. Moss isn't just fascinating for how it lives, spreads, and is used even today, but it becomes a metaphor for life and its struggle for survival. By seeing moss in a new way, we see the challenges to living in a new way too. While the spiritual dimension in this book isn't as immersive as her second book, we follow her experiences as a wife, mother, and scientist in ways that she doesn't reveal in "Braiding Sweetgrass". So this book is not really 'a natural and cultural history of mosses', which is what I thought it would be. It is more like the author reflecting on mosses, her life, the meaning of things, and how interconnectivity in biology things (including people and mosses). This book is a series of essays about her life, with mosses playing some role in each. I give daily thanks for Robin Wall Kimmerer for being a font of endless knowledge, both mental and spiritual. Richard Powers

I am noticing moss everywhere now and appreciating ist qualities. I am saddened that such amazing, ancient and tiny plants are dismissed and removed by just the kinds of chemicals from which they can protect us. Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.The engine of her next book will be “ecological compassion” for plants. She would like people to come to understand them as sovereign beings in their own right, if not people. “The research in plant intelligence that is being done is already revolutionising science,” she says, “so my next project is designed to elicit in the reader a sense of compassion and justice for them. I would like people to recognise their culture. Take off your anthropocentric lenses, and you will see that they have very rich cultural lives.” By publishing your document, the content will be optimally indexed by Google via AI and sorted into the right category for over 500 million ePaper readers on YUMPU. In one section the author discusses how two different mosses can inhabit the same log. Ecological theory predicts that coexistence is possible only when the two species diverge from one another in some essential way. This theory made me think of men and women. Maybe the only way that we can coexist is because of our differences, which there are many! But in the case of mosses, she is referring to their reproductive strategy. One moss only grows on top of logs she discovered, because this is a pathway for chipmunks who disturb the area and spread the tiny moss propagules along the way. There are always many parts to a puzzle and how curious that moss and chipmunks are linked together! Mosses are successful by any biological measure - they inhabit nearly every ecosystem in earth and number as many as 22,000 species." A book about moss? Really? I hated botany in college so while this was highly recommended by a friend (who happens to be a botanist who studies ...wait for it ... sedges!), I just wasn't sure this was for me. I added it to my TBR list and spent more than a year with it there. I did attempt it once, but didn't get far and the library reclaimed it.

Goblin’s gold ( Schistostega pennata) is highly reflective, having tiny ‘lenses’ within the structure. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy Her macro approach (the ecology) notes the other life's that rely and use mosses - the snails (as beds), the tree seedlings (as nutrient base), the birds (as lining for nests), the bears (digestives), and the humans (myriad of ways!). There's a particularly insightful essay "The Web of Reciprocity: Indigenous Uses of Mosses" that relates how indigenous groups have used mosses for bedding, for baby diapers, for menstrual padding, for bindings, for food additives. This was Robin Wall Kimmerer's first book. As noted in my review of "Braiding Sweetgrass", Dr. Kimmerer is a national treasure. Any woman who can write a book on moss that is, and isn't, about moss, can hold the attention of someone who isn't a fan of botany (I couldn't read Pollan's "Botany of Desire" either), and that prompts me to stop on the trail on discovering a patch of moss, just to touch it, has a rare writing gift indeed! I loved this book.The audiobook was extremely well-read - the pacing was spot on and the excitement of the narrator was conveyed perfectly! Can mosses help us to read the state of the planet? “We don’t know if they can in macro ways,” Kimmerer tells me (she’s speaking to me on Zoom from upstate New York). “But in small ways, yes. They are great indicators of air quality, and of heavy metals in the environment; because they have no epidermis, they’re intimate with the world. They’re storytellers. If I see a certain kind of moss, I’ll think, Oh, I know you… you wouldn’t be here unless there was limestone nearby. There are mosses that tell the story of land disturbance, and there are mosses that only come in after fires, and they’re habitats, too, for tardigrades and rotifers [minute aquatic animals], for algae, and all sorts of other things. They are the coral reef of the forest, a microbiome in which the species of the bacteria that live in the angles of their leaves are different, say, to those on their rhizoids [the filaments found on their thallus, or plant body].” Beautiful ... Her scientific training and knowledge of plants from her Potawatomi heritage create a unique lens, teaching us how to look and watch... Reading this has made me stop to wondrously admire any patch of moss I come across. Quietus