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Am I the only one who didn't know moss has a whole secret life on the north side of a maple?
Last month I was clearing out a shady corner of my yard in Portland and noticed this thick green fuzz creeping up the north face of my old maple. I figured it was just moss doing moss stuff, but then I read that the north side stays damp longer because it gets less direct sun, which is apparently why moss loves it there so much. I grabbed a cheap hand lens off Amazon for $12 and honestly it looked like a tiny rainforest in there, all these little stalks and cups I'd never noticed. Turns out moss doesn't even have real roots, it just soaks up water through its whole body and can go dormant for months, then green up again after one good rain. I checked the same spot after a dry week and it was crispy brown, then two days after watering the garden it was back to full green like nothing happened. Now I keep catching myself staring at the cracks in my sidewalk moss instead of the actual plants I paid for. Has anyone tried growing a moss patch on purpose, and did it actually take or just dry up on you?
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jesse98817h ago
Moss does have tiny root-like strands called rhizoids, they just don't pull up water the way real roots do. And yeah, a moss patch will take if you keep it shady and damp for the first few weeks, mine stuck around after I stopped babying it.
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