Do you have a poetical turn of mind? Perhaps you can improve on these poems, anonymously submitted by BBS members for this month’s regular blog post (and shown in strict order of submission).
Email me your entries if you dare (webmaster@britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk) and I will add them to the post!
There was an old woman from Glos
Who became quite obsess-ed with moss
Her friends said ‘She’s mad’
‘She’ll surely go bad’
But all that she’d say was ‘Their loss’!
Mosses make the most amusement
When you’re really old and grey
Checking for the leaf decurrent
‘Bryum rubens!’ then you’ll say
If hepatics are your thing
Then cell contents you’ll discern
And a Paton you must bring
For Lophozia there to learn
But hornworts are the odd one out
For antheridia you must spot
And then a miracle comes about
‘Phaeoceros laevis!’ thanks a lot.
Living mosaics on Cotswold stone walls
Velvety boulders by waterfalls
Tumbling over woodland floors
And colourful carpets on lonely moors
Moss lives all round us, for us all to see
Sadly, ignored by the majority
Overlooked and dismissed as ‘boring green stuff’
I tell you, I’ve just about had enough!
Just look a bit closer and you will find
A miniature world (a world much maligned)
Deep in dense cushions, for you to explore
Live spiders and beetles and beasties galore
Zoom in even closer, 40 times more
And marvel at all the wonders in store
Gemmae and rhizoids – and inside the cells
Hide nuclei, chloroplasts and organelles
And if you’re in luck you might even spot
A tardigrade; creature that time forgot
Munching around your slide preparation
Oblivious to its dire situation
🙁
Moss folk welcome autumn showers,
With fewer, cooler daylight hours.
As tarmac wets and mud gets stickier,
It’s time to look for Dialytrichia,
Fossombronia and Riccia,
Ephemerums too, for something trickier.
Moss folk welcome autumn showers,
But sometimes wish they’d stuck with flowers.
Published: 1 December 2022
