How a tiny plant kept baby bottoms dry and helped wounded soldiers heal
Mosses, of course, are those diminutive, little-noticed plants that grow in dense patches on the ground or on trees, typically in moist, shaded places. Worldwide there are some 10,000 different kinds (estimates vary), and from a distance many look much alike. Most are familiar only to specialists.
Sphagnum (peat) mosses are notable exceptions.
There are about 135 Sphagnum species, and they’re found particularly in the bogs, tundra, and coniferous forests of the far North. Sphagnum is also an important component of southern “pocosins” and other boggy areas along the Atlantic coastal plain, including the Carolinas.
Scattered patches of Sphagnum grow along the banks of our backyard lagoon, where they’ve stayed green and vibrant despite the Lowcountry’s recent bouts of cold weather.
Like other mosses, Sphagnum produces neither flowers nor fruit, nor does it have the specialized conducting and supportive tissues characteristic of the “vascular” plants (oak trees, roses, daisies, etc.) that most people are familiar with.
A clump of Sphagnum actually comprises many individual moss plants with slender stems, branches, and simple, delicate leaves. Each plant once originated from a tiny spore.
As Sphagnum moss grows, it forms a thick, spreading mat of vegetation. New plants appear on the top, while lower portions of the mat slowly decay. In bogs, over millions of years, extensive growths of Sphagnum produce an organic, acidic soil mixture called peat.
The “peat moss” used as a soil additive in gardens is mainly dried Sphagnum moss, which can absorb up to 20 times its dry weight in moisture.
Because of this exceptional water-retention capacity, dried Sphagnum has been used for centuries for diapers and (most recently, during World War I) as a gauze-like dressing for wounds.
The ubiquitous Spanish “moss” of the Lowcountry isn’t related to Sphagnum at all. It’s actually a flowering plant in the same family as pineapples.
Vicky McMillan, a retired biologist formerly at Colgate University,lives on Hilton Head Island. She can be reached at vicky.mcmillan@gmail.com.
This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 6:05 AM with the headline "How a tiny plant kept baby bottoms dry and helped wounded soldiers heal."