Grovel at Gravel ... Recipe for a Moss Milkshake ...

Genuflecting at stones and making a moss milkshake where on earth is this world taking us. Just sometimes we need to take a closer look and these days we are being encouraged to do just that. One of my favourite stopping points on my way to Penzance Cornwall is The Eden Project, as described in this post; Eden has a ‘Flowerless Garden’ exhibit, where they have been introducing, over the past two years, the story of evolution through the planting of mosses and liverworts.

"Lichenes" from Ernst Haeckel’s Artforms of Nature, 1904

Britain boasts 1,000 native species of the world’s 20,000 species, and is considered along with New Zealand and British Columbia to be one of the premier temperate, global moss locations: Cornwall is in a unique position with its damp climate to be able to showcase a wide range of healthy and beautiful mosses and liverworts.

Moss trunk - courtesy of Andrew Westcott

The Eden Project are great experimenters and are absolutely determined to do everything naturally – to grow moss garden on site; their inspiration was the moss garden, Wistman’s Wood, in one of Devon’s oldest woodland on Dartmoor. The woodland looks as prehistoric man would have found it – a magical, ancient copse, festooned with moss and liverworts – or where J K Rowling would have taken us in the Harry Potter series.

Believe it or not, moss milkshakes are an ideal way of establishing mosses on rocks and stones. The recipe – take one part buttermilk, one part water, and a handful of moss: blend until a thin smooth soup, ensuring all the moss lumps are finely mashed; spread, brush or spray onto the selected moss site. Alternative flavours: beer, cream, yoghurt or sugar. Finally keep the area damp for the first month. Courtesy of The Eden Project magazine Summer 2009.

Moss –shakes could be used in a number of ways in the future to green-up troublesome north-facing, damp walls, or dull winter spaces, which could do with some colour and texture, or in due course may be used for moss walls rising vertically, thus revitalising and greening our urban areas.

Mosses are one of the very early indicators of plant life, but are surpassed by lichens as the first form of plant in the plant chain. Mosses were often used to stuff mattresses and pillows in the eighteenth century and one of our native moss genera, Hypnum, derives its name from the Greek for ‘sleep’. Lichens today, in times past probably ignored, can date buildings from the lichen growing on them – pre-determined by looking at gravestones, with their dates, and taking that species of lichen, its growth period, and thus determining the building’s age.

In my post on Herbs, Worts and all, I briefly summarised early herbal medicine; the Apothecaries’ discipline embraced new learning and the Chelsea Physic Garden was founded soon afterwards in 1673 on the edge of London, as it was then – now in the heart of Chelsea, with its entrance from the river along Swan Walk.

Today, lichens serve as important biological indicators of air quality, which the lichens in Chelsea have been reflecting for centuries, and are now being monitored. When the scientists started to take an interest in 1977 only 11 species of lichen were recorded, however now there are 38 – which shows that London’s air quality is improving. We had only just come through the ‘pea soupers’ (simply nasty fogs!) of the 50s and 60s with their acidic effects.

When fungi are found in association with algae the dual plant is called a lichen – but don’t be put off by this definition! Climb out of the car and look at the surface of the ground. This was the ‘call to arms’ for my mother and I on our trip to the Namib, where you wouldn’t quite expect to be told to grovel at gravel .. but yes, Namibia has some of the rarest and most interesting species in the world.

Crustose and foliose lichens on a wall

These next paragraphs were written in an informative letter (not much has changed then?!) by me nineteen years ago: The vegetation of the gravel plains contains, again, many intriguing forms of life. The desert eidelweiss and other everlastings look more like cultivated old-fashioned posies, than desert xerophytes growing under arid and harsh conditions.

Lichens too, of many varieties, occur on the gravel plains, rocky outcrops and mountain slopes. These strange organisms, which are normally hard and brittle, come to life or ‘bloom’ when water is sprinkled over them – moving visibly and becoming soft and leathery to touch.

Lichens are not really plants, but composite organisms composed of algae and fungi, forming a symbiotic association. Because they ‘help’ one another, they can grow in places where no other plant could exist. Like other plants in Namibia, lichen is dependent on the sea fog for its survival, although it can manage without moisture for long periods of time.

Gravestone, with lichens on it, showing date of death at 1639, Wormshill, Maidstone, Kent

Lichens are a very important link in the food-chain of the desert and there is a close interaction between lichens and the insect life. They are the first form of life in the plant chain and the lichens of the Namib have created considerable interest amongst international lichen experts.

So please grovel at stones they may be able to tell you something and should you feel a little under the weather, why not try a lovely green milkshake – make mine a beer one!

Dear Mr Postman – we are relatively quiet: my mother has been happy with her birthday, but sleepy too; she remembers and forgets that Derek has died, but is philosophical in her acceptance. We just quietly move on .. thank you all for your thoughts –

Hilary Melton-Butcher
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