About Moss
Mosses are small flowerless plants that grow in dense green mats that seem to carpet the ground usually in a shady damp spot. Mosses do not have seeds and, most develop spores in tiny capsules in order to reproduce. All mosses make their own food and do not have stems, leaf veins, or roots. The Red Spoonleaf Peat Moss is distinguished by its shiny red cushion of leaves. The branches are fat and bunched together and form a rosette at the top. The leaves are round-tipped and overlap each other. This type of moss is considered rare and is found in sunny spots in a bog environment.
Native American Practical and Medicinal Uses
Red Spoonleaf Peat Moss is fairly common in the cool temperate woodland forests of New England. This moss is extremely absorbent and was used extensively by Native peoples as disposable diapers and sanitary napkins. This moss was also packed around infants in their cradleboards in the winter to help insulate them against the cold. This and other mosses are used to help insulate Native dwellings in the winter months as well as providing extra insulation for clothing. Acting like a preservative, moss was also packed around food stores as insulation. Medicinally, moss was used to help cleanse wounds and, was sometimes used as a wound dressing.
Did You Know
Most mosses are not even one inch high.
Botanists believe that the earliest mosses developed more than 375 million years ago during the Devonia and Silurian Periods.
Mosses are classified in their own plant division of Bryophyta and there are about 12,000 species.
Commercially, the main significance of moss is peat.
Other names for this moss are Magellanic bog moss, Magellan's sphagnum, and midway peat moss.
The antibiotic properties of bryophytes have drawn the attention of botanists and microbiologists in recent years.
Enhance your gardening with sphagnum moss's moisture-loving properties.
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