Mosses, belonging to the bryophyte group, are considered large sponges; they are capable of retaining up to 20 times their weight in water. They absorb excess rainwater and slowly release it in dry weather along with the water’s own minerals, allowing the incorporation of these into the ecosystem, providing food, housing and protection to a diversity of microorganisms and small animals, especially invertebrates.
“There is a lot of ignorance about this microscopic world. On my tours, many times people don’t know what they are, if they are plants, soil, algae, fungi. But when they discover it, they learn to observe everything in nature, that blindness for the small is unlocked,” commented the content creator about plants (ferns and mosses), who has been conducting awareness-raising visits to the forests near the city for two years. from Mexico.
Mosses are primitive plants, they were the first to colonize the Earth and have lived on our planet for more than 300 million years. They do not have roots, leaves, or stems, but they do have a very ancient system made up of rhizoids, caulidia and phylidia that form colonies, whether of the same or different species. These colonies make up the famous green mats or carpets that we see in the forests and can grow and live on rocks, tree trunks and sometimes even on other plants. They are not parasitic, that is, they do not kill the organisms on which they sustain themselves.
Massively and illegally extracting mosses affects ecosystems because it reduces the humidity of the forests, increases soil erosion and with it the loss of germination of other plants. Furthermore, as they are slow-growing plants, each year the collectors have to go deeper into the forests, preying on other areas.
“Having a layer of half a centimeter of moss takes up to a year, approximately, with a rapid growth process. Now imagine when you remove a layer of forest moss that is between five and 10 centimeters thick, how long did it take to grow? ”said Don Helecho, for whom it is definitely not worth using a living being for decorative purposes as happens during this Christmas season.
Mexican scientist Miriam San José works for the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galapagos Islands. Their hope is that trees of a key species will once again create a forest.
Other species at risk
The moss (Polytrichum spp.), hay (Tillandsia spp.) and the doradilla or immortelle (Selaginella spp.), are not the only species that are affected by their extraction, there are many others that depend on the health of the forests.
“In the case of crassulaceae and cacti, many times what is in danger is not the plant itself, but its habitat. Crassulaceae grow on the mats formed by mosses, because moisture is stored there and substrate accumulates. It is an ideal habitat for them,” said biologist María de los Ángeles Islas, from the Propagation of Plants, Cactaceae and Crassulaceae in Danger of Extinction program of the Botanical Garden, belonging to the UNAM Institute of Biology, in an interview.
The expert explained that moss reproduces by spores, which travel in raindrops and currents. Hence its dependence on water and the need for special care.
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