Moss

Outdoor Hour Challenge this month features Moss, Lichens and Mushrooms

and this week we’d like to share our study on

We have become nature detectives once again!

I think that our greatest tool is a digital camera.  Miss.L10 is armed and alert and scampers off to find moss, lichen and mushrooms. She already knows of one spot – her favorite place with a soft carpet of moss.  We stop in the shade and I photograph her feet on the wonderful, cool, velvety, green moss. But Miss.L is off to show me her amazing moss discovery – some moss is tucked in a rock, all dusty, browny-grey, seemingly dead.

But she knows a special trick that I must photograph ~ if she pours water on this moss, it will instantly transform into lush green! And so, I watch and record the instant recovery – in seconds the moss has revived!

A small piece of moss is loose.  She takes it home so that we can examine it closely under our magnifying glass.

No roots?

How does it turn instantly green?

Once again, we do not have the answers and so we search our Handbook of Nature Study and the internet.

• Moss and fern notes
• Planting a moss lawn

The moss is so pretty.  After seeing such lovely moss on Pinterest, we decide to put our moss in some bottles and display them on our nature shelf for the month. A dainty garden of moss and lichens arranged in some glass bottles.

The next day Miss.L notices steam inside the bottles.

Steam?

“Where did the steam come from?” Miss.L10 asks me.  And, amazingly, she remembers,  “… transformation? …no, … transpiration!”

Yes!

• DIY: Bottle Terrarium
• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – activity pdf
• Hydrological Cycle – activity pdf

Delightful nature discoveries!

Join us for your OHC discoveries!

Blessings,

Sharing this post in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Carnival.  Submit yours here.