Rare Moss Goes Without Sex For 130 Years

For more then 130 years, the rare Nowell’s moss found on old limestone walls in northwest England has not been known to fruit and the plant has been listed as an endangered species. –The Vancouver Sun, Associated Press, Jan8/03

…but scientists from the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia have recently discovered tiny brown flowers on a small patch of Nowell’s moss in the Yorkshire Dales near the town of Bishops Itchingfoot. This is an important find, not only from a biodiversity point of view, but may also play a part in saving the deteriorating limestone walls that have been part of the landscape for centuries. These walls were built long before King Arthur’s Roundtable without the benefit of mortar, put together like jigsaw puzzles criss-crossing the English countryside. The once abundant moss filled the cracks between the stones holding them in place. The decline in the moss and subsequent deterioration of the walls coincides with the discovery that livestock need sodium. In the mid 1800’s farmers started putting salt blocks in their fields and the sheep stopped licking the naturally salty moss. Dr. Ichabob Bobb, lead researcher from U of W, explains that his team now believes that this wall-licking is how the moss was pollinated.

“The pollen would be picked up by the sheep’s warm wet tongues and moved down the walls as the sheep grazed. We had considered reintroducing a small number of sheep to moss-licking, but 130 years is a very long time to go without sex and most of the female moss appear to be sterile. A mite has developed that eats the female sex organs and unfortunately all attempts to kill the mites have changed the taste of the moss, leaving it unappealing for even the most salt-deprived sheep.”

Even though the new flowering was a fluke, it is still encouraging and Dr. Bobb and his team are continuing to work on reestablishing Nowell’s moss.