We're experiencing a brief relief from the cold here in Wisconsin (it's 43°F today!) so I took the opportunity to wander around in the woods. I'm super surprised how much healthy, green moss persists through winter. Do mosses stay active even under the snow, or am I witnessing a warmer weather green up? 🤔
#Mosstodon
@quixote They keep photosynthesizing under the snow? But, like, how?!? 🤯
@mycologistmaybe Quite a lot of light filters through snow. Not meters and meters of it, of course. But a meter or so? Enough for mosses and lichens, which are super tough little critters. They're pretty much what colonized the rock before there were any other land plants, so they're small but mighty!
@quixote Thinking about them hanging out in their own little igloos doing their thing all winter is making me very very happy. 😁
@mycologistmaybe Cold-adapted mosses -- which is what those look like 😆 -- can keep growing right under a blanket of snow. That and lichens is what the reindeer and caribou in the Far North are scratching through the snow to find.