Introduction: The World Seen Through Mossy Glass

1.
Become a stone that doesn't roll

The beginning of the meeting, name
What Data Can't Tell You

2.
Learn to see

It looks like you need to train
Listen to it like an ensemble
Things you see as you learn names

3.
Why it's good to be small

The boundary layer of those who live as owners
How to adapt to a small body

4.
Life Returns to Water

Amphibians of the plant world
Sexual reproduction and water in mosses
The dance of genes and environment

5.
The Beauty of Role Separation - Tail Moss

The Moss Family's 'A Room of One's Own'
Dad, looking for tail moss
Why Being a Short Man Has an Advantage

6.
How to embrace change

Moss that accepts moisture changes
How moss loves water
Calmly waiting for the reunion

7.
Life Calling Life - Sol-i-kki

Trash calls trash
Life calls life

8.
In the forest of water bears

Moss Microcosm and Rainforest
Animals of the Mossy Forest
The Mystery of Moss and Water Bears

9.
Coexistence brought about by disaster

Phoenix moss and parasol moss
Species Diversity and Disaster: The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

10.
Life of Choice

Prolific and ascetic mosses
Nesakchi Moss's Decentralized Investment
Gender-neutral choice
A choice that risks death

11.
Light coming through a gap

Opportunity in Crisis: Forest Cracks
The Mystery of Two Moss Under One Roof
The place of the prepared

12.
City people, city moss

Longtime Cohabitant: The Urban Cliff Hypothesis
A city that drives out moss
A city with moss
The everyday canary in the mine

13.
Responsibility Embedded in Talent - Moss and Culture

In a network of reciprocity
Talents given to humans
Finding your unique role
A great yet humble plant

14.
Someone's stepping on the well-trodden ground - sphagnum moss

Death embraced by water moss
History sleeping under the swamp
What memories connect

15.
The Road I Take - Splacnum

A life of one's own
A life that blooms ceaselessly

16.
Love to possess

green-decorated rocks
The bond between rock and moss
Natural landscapes created over time
The authenticity of the owner's garden
To possess life

17.
A life of giving back to the community

Moss that retains moisture in the forest
If it's good for the moss, it's good for the forest.
The relationship between moss and forest life

18.
Pain given without reservation

Traces of 'them'
irreplaceable life

19.
We are more precious than gold - Light Moss

Encounter with Light Moss
I am grateful for today

Acknowledgements
Further Reading
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A simple yet elegant plant, moss
Hear that little whisper

Moss is everywhere.
Even in barren cities, they can be found everywhere, such as between sidewalk blocks, under street trees, and in the shade of buildings.
But it hardly attracts people's attention.
This is in contrast to the trees and flowers that are loved by many people.
Rather, it is considered a messy and unnecessary thing that occurs in places that are not properly managed.
But is moss really such a talisman? The author, a plant ecologist of the Potawatomi Native American tribe, draws on her modern scientific background and the indigenous knowledge she gained as a member of her tribe to reveal the untold secrets of moss.
The moss is small.
It has no flowers or fruits, and its stem and roots are simple.
It does not show off the same gorgeous beauty as other wild flowers.
However, thanks to this, they play an important role in establishing themselves in places where other plants cannot live, thereby creating a habitat for other life forms.
And it flexibly adapts to its surroundings, thrives, and fills every corner.
After reading this book, you will realize that these small, simple plants that you usually pass by without a second thought are incredibly elegant and beautiful, and can even provide insight into life.

Trees, wildflowers, and other life are also beautiful.
The wisdom of making simplicity sufficient

The moss growing on the rocks and fallen trees looks peaceful at first glance.
It grows slowly and appears to change little.
From a human's height, the individual moss is too small to be seen properly, so it just looks like a green carpet.
But moss's life is never easy.
Mosses generally live in places where other plants cannot grow.
Moss is easily found in places where there is no soil, such as on rocks, between pavement blocks, where it is difficult for the roots to take root properly and where moisture is not retained, and in places where the environment changes drastically, such as on rotten logs.

In places like this, the simple, small body of moss becomes an advantage.
Mosses cannot grow tall because they lack roots or vascular tissue, but they can remain flat on surfaces and survive with only a little moisture.
While larger plants make various efforts to avoid losing moisture, such as storing water in their stems and developing bark, mosses accept moisture changes as they are.
If there is no water, it just dries its leaves and waits, but if there is water, it uses the properties of the water to grow quickly without expending much energy.
Contrary to popular belief that being small and simple is a negative thing, moss thrives in many places, using this characteristic as its own strength.

If you look closely, you'll find that mosses have various shapes and characteristics.
Flexible choices that shine in each environment

Meanwhile, each of the 22,000 species of moss has a unique personality.
To best adapt to a given environment, each species of moss has evolved to have different appearances and characteristics.
Silkworms that live in places with a stable environment focus on asexual reproduction, creating offspring that are clones of themselves and spreading them around.
Living in a place where competition is fierce and rapid change makes it difficult for them to survive for a long time, the red roof moss reproduces sexually by sending spores that combine their genes over long distances.
Depending on how closely they are packed together, the four-legged moss may change sex or even risk immediate death to reproduce.
Most mosses spread their spores through the wind, but Splacnum, a moss that lives in deer dung, uses dung flies to spread its spores.

There is no absolute superiority among these diverse moss species in nature.
For example, even if a cliff is normally covered with moss, it is a different story when a flood occurs.
The empty space where the parasol moss was torn off by the current is filled with the flood-resistant phoenix moss.
Every species of moss is beautiful in its own way.

“You will now walk carefully so as not to step on those microcosms.”
Small but not small moss

Moss also forms a forest.
You might wonder what it means to say that a forest can be formed from moss that is only a few centimeters thick, but it is true.
The author points out that there are many similarities between a tropical rainforest with its dense growth of giant trees and a moss colony.
Just as rainforests are a treasure trove of life, lush moss forms a unique miniature ecosystem, providing a home for countless creatures.
Moss provides an environment for small insects to live in, and these insects form a symbiotic relationship by transferring sperm to the moss and helping it reproduce.

These networks expand to larger scales.
Moss growing at the base of trees in the forest holds moisture and provides a wonderful environment for young trees to grow.
When a huge tree reaches the end of its life and falls, moss grows back in its place.
The author, who is of Native American descent, says that all living things have their own unique 'talents' and that with those talents come 'responsibilities.'
Although small, moss plays a role as a member of nature.
When you see the network of interdependence surrounding the moss, the moss no longer seems small.

How do we view nature?
Looking back at the relationship between humans and moss

What kind of direct relationship has moss had with humans? The author delves into 19th-century records of Native Americans to find information about moss.
I could find almost no mention of it, but I did find a brief one-line entry.
The moss was used as diapers and sanitary pads.
Although overlooked by white male folklorists, moss, which can store large amounts of moisture, was essential for Native Americans, especially women.
This use of moss resembles the life of moss in nature, quietly forming the foundation of the ecosystem.

Today, we also use moss as decoration and soil conditioner.
But now people are trying to possess moss too much and are exploiting it.
The author tells the story of a rich man who spends a lot of money trying to create a realistic-looking moss garden in his mansion, but ultimately fails and ends up using explosives to remove the entire rock on which the moss is growing.
It also speaks of traders who indiscriminately collect moss from the forest and sell it as a commodity, leaving scars that may not heal for decades, or even centuries.
It is a bitter passage that reminds us of the greed of humans who do not know how to love a being as it is but merely try to possess it, and the relationship between humans and nature that has been distorted by one-sided exploitation.