WEBVTT - How Moss Works 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:07.440 It's ready. Are you welcome to you stuff you should 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:16.599 know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.480 to the podcast. On Josh Clark, there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.680 who now refuses to do the cheeks everyone. So I 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.720 can't vouch for how good the episodes will be from 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:29.840 this point on. Cheeks are done. I don't care about 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.800 them anymore. We'll see, okay. I mean, if we started 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.240 nosed ive, you're doing the cheeks again. I will seek 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.640 to it that you do the cheeks. You can't do it, well, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.280 I will stand on your chest. Ben will grab one cheek, 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.640 Jerry will grab the other, and the cheeks will be done. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.320 That for people who don't know we're talking about this 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.240 sounds like really gross. So everybody knows what we're talking about. 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.200 Chuck does a little cheek poll to start off each episode. 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.440 It's a little good luck charm. And now he's suddenly 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.440 decided he's not going to do that anymore. So I 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.480 have a new good luck term. What is it. It's 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.880 called not doing cheeks. It's not it's a bad luck. 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.240 So I've got a joke for you to open this 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.760 one up? Do you really? And I made it up today. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.480 It's a made up joke. I don't want to hear. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:18.960 What do you call a reproducing sphagnum? What, Randy Moss? 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.720 That's pretty good? Not bad? No, no, no, that's that's 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.320 into the realm of pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, that's good 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:29.480 to think. If I was a tour guided it like 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.360 a nature like a firm bank science and or something 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.120 that would be my good too, for the kids to 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.280 try and identify with them. I don't think the kids 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.120 would like it as much as maybe the teacher. The 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.600 teacher would be like, that's pretty funny. And by the way, 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.559 those brownie high socks you're wearing are great. Um, well, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.000 I'm going to give an intro an addition to the joke. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:55.560 The intro joke. Maybe that should be your new good 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.560 luck thing you tell you make a joke, make up 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:00.960 a joke for every That would be welcome back. Carter. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.560 Did they have a joke for everyone? Yeah? He introde 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.600 every show by or maybe it was altrode by telling 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.919 a joke to his wife. Oh yeah, I hadn't picked 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:14.960 up on that. I only saw like maybe two episodes 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.799 of that show. Well then you heard two jokes, yeah, 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.360 plus all the other jokes. Was his wife one and 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:26.640 the same with Um Bailey from w carp. Didn't they 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.520 look alike? Were they the same person? I don't know 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.359 if they were the same person, but they definitely seemed 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.359 the same. And they both wore glasses. They had the 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:40.240 feathered of long feathered haired seventies ladies. I don't think 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.200 they were the same though, but they were both probably 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.120 on the low boat. Yes, yes, within five years as 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.640 like a way to revitalize their career. Um Chuck, I 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.240 was going to talk about the ice age, the beginning 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.720 of the ice age, or of ice ages, glacial periods. 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.360 Remember right now, we're in the midst of an interglacial period, right. 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.280 I want you to think back way back four hundred 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.160 and seventy million years ago, there was no such thing 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.119 as a glacial period, and by proxy, there's no such 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.880 thing as an interglacial period. All we had was one hot, soupy, 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.720 barren mess of land and ocean and that was it. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:26.959 That's right. This is what's called the Ordovician period or 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.119 or d Vichian period, depending on where you come from. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.960 Uh and uh, the the beginning of this period is 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:42.320 characterized by ice ages, and um paleo geologists. I guess 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.720 you could just call them geologists really, because nobody's studying 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:49.200 like present stuff very much. It's mostly paleo geology. Right. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.480 They were like, where did this ice age come from? Where? 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.119 Like when did this start? And they figured out that 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.120 what triggered this was the arrival of the very first 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.560 basic lane and plants e g. Mosses, that's right. And 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.760 they recently figured out, um that mosses came about about 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.920 four seventy million years ago, and they triggered these ice 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.520 ages by latching onto rocks. So these were a certain 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.040 type of moss as you and I know, called granite mosses, 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:20.320 and they would actually leech materials from these rocks to 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.680 use as nutrients and minerals. Right, these are like wheaties 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.880 for moss. Early moss, Well, the moss started releasing stuff, 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:32.240 releasing h no sucking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.159 enough to reduce the global temperature mean temperature by eight 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.760 degrees centigrade, which led to the beginning of ice ages 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.400 and the ice age periods that we know and love. 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.520 You can thank moss for that. You go outside, you 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.760 find a little bit of moss, you grab a little 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.360 piece of it gently and then shake it sand shake 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:55.359 it a little. Thanks for the ice ages. Well, we 0:04:55.400 --> 0:05:00.240 needed ice ages. Yeah, there remains to be seen. That's 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.080 all part of the big soup. We've had. Some might 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.720 doubt it. We've had some chilly, windy weather lately, and 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.200 it has been getting to me like it's been like 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.000 just seeing the trees, like getting whipped outside makes me 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.160 feel chilly and then in turn I feel socially isolated 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.839 and mad. Wow. Yeah, it's been really windy. Yeah. Crazy. 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.480 So we're talking about moss. This is no joke. April 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.120 is over by now. We're in it right now, but 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:26.920 by the time it comes out, this is no April 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.239 fool's joke. We're talking about moss and how it works 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.800 because it's part of our long parade of explaining absolutely 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.919 everything in the known universe that's right at moss is 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:38.680 Moss is part of that. It's part of that. So 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:41.800 let's talk about moss. Well, moss is pretty fun and 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.799 unique in some ways if you ask me, uh, because 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.840 unlike most flowering plants and trees, or let me go ahead, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:56.159 and say it all flowering prants, prants and trees. Um, 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.320 they don't have roots like traditional root systems. Moss doesn't 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.680 know mosses don't they do not. Um, they don't germinate 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:10.159 from seeds. Pretty weird. And uh, they don't gush water 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:17.880 around through internal systems and systems. Yeah, and that's weird. 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.039 It is, especially if you're familiar with plants. Then you're like, well, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.760 when moss is strangely for somebody, you know, an average 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.080 bystanderd like me, I'm like, okay, well, moss doesn't do that, 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.400 and plants do. It doesn't seem particularly weird to me, 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.360 but I do find it intriguing. It makes me want 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.880 to know more about moss. Well, you got about fifteen 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.320 thousand species if you want to talk about moss. Uh. 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.200 Traditionally you were probably going to think of moss as 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.000 the true moss. Well, let's back up a little bit. 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.880 They're related to the liver wort and hornwart. Yeah. I've seen. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.279 I saw other articles on moss, and everybody points that 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.520 out for some reason. I'm I'm not sure if they're like, 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.440 I gotta put ten things in about moss, and that's 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.680 what I got. Nine until put that. Uh they are 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:10.240 in the phylum uh Brio FDA, and they're in three groups. 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.440 You've got the granite mosses, the pete mosses, and true mosses. Um. 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.400 True mosses are probably what we're going to think of 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.640 when you think of the little green carpet like padding 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:21.360 that you see every kind of fallen tree in a 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.559 forest or something. Yeah, and there are tons of true moss, 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:32.480 like fourteen species um. Granite mosses are blackish, small growing 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.640 Arctic regions in the mountains, grow on rocks. They're the 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.720 most ancient moss apparently, that's right, and they're only about 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.320 a hundred species of that. And then the final sub 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:48.080 group is the pete moss grows in bogs. Have you 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.160 ever been in a bog, then you've probably seen some 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:55.600 pete moss or sphagnum mos, right, And that's the money 0:07:55.640 --> 0:08:00.400 moss because you can burn it and converted to electricity, yeah, 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.120 and charge money for it. That's why Sphagnum is the 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:07.600 money moss. And oddly or not oddly, but remarkably moss, 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.720 the Sphagnum moss do you use as a soil conditioner? 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.560 We do that in our garden. Because some of it 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.760 can hold twenty times it's dry weight and water. It's 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.320 pretty amazing. That's very amazing. That's some strong moss. You're 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:25.040 gonna find moss all over the place, including places where 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.320 you won't find any other living plants, like the bottom 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.320 of an Arctic or Antarctic lake. That is pretty impressive. Like, 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:39.600 the only multicellular plant growing down there is moss, and 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.600 it grows really slow. I think as little as one 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.120 centimeter per year, this aquatic moss at the bottom of 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:50.960 these frozen lakes, and that is the slowest growing and 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.559 longest living freshwater plant ever recorded, I would guess. So 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.280 it's kind of like um putting somebody on ice, right, 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.280 slow going down the cellular processes, but they're still active, 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.960 so you could by by in theory, extend their lifespan, right, 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.360 that's right, the same thing with moss. Yeah, it's probably 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.480 even easier with moss. And by that same token, um 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.320 the zombie moss I thought was pretty cool. Yeah, you 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.880 could dry some mosses out for nineteen years without water, 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.439 and if you add water to it, it'll, you know, 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.480 it'll turn into a big dinosaur. It's pretty cool though. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:32.600 If they didn't go dormant for that long. Yeah, it's amazing. 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.160 And all mosses can go dormant, it's like one of 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:38.920 their defense mechanisms. Still just turn brown and dry out 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.440 and there dormant state. Unfortunately, you can't really tell, like 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.200 what the differences between dead and dormant until you add 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.080 water and see if it comes back. That's the only 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.240 way to determine the length of a moss's dormancy. Oh 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:55.920 so if you add water and it just stays dead, 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.800 then it was dead. That's sad. Um. So you said 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.920 there's like fifteen thousand species, and they kind of range 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:07.679 in size and shape and texture color. Um. Some of 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:12.680 the I think the peat mosses grow different colors like 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.720 rose yep. Some grow black like the granite moss. You said, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.480 some are silver, which is amazing. Um. And then there's 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:26.920 the smallest mosses, the Ephemorum, which is half a millimeter tall. 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.360 It's adult size. Um. And then there's the Dawsonia, which 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.400 is up to almost thirty inches seventy centimeters in height, 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.080 which that's pretty wide variety. Okay, some moss is fairly interesting. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.400 So far, let's talk about the individual plants, because when 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.960 you look at um moss, and you think about moss, 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.600 you're thinking of a carpet of plants, right, Those are 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.760 actually like a bunch of little plants put together. Correct, Yeah, okay, yeah, sure, 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:56.240 that's that's one way I think of it. So when 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:00.560 you're when you're talking about moss, um, when you're talking 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.320 about the individual parts are the individual plants. They're pretty simple, 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.360 They're pretty basic. You have um something called the gameta 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:12.560 fight which is the stem and the leaves. Right. The 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.800 leaves are generally arranged in a spiral pattern. Uh. And 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.960 the leaves are usually um a lance shaped with like 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.680 a point. Right. That's where you're gonna find your reproductive parts, right. Um. 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:29.000 At the bottom there's rhizoids instead of roots. Remember these 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.000 are not roots and um, so they don't anchor themselves 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.360 to anything necessarily. They will the anchor themselves to like 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:40.280 maybe organic material something, but it's not into the dirt. Um. 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.240 And they also don't they don't suck up water in 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.079 the same way that roots do, but they do use 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.840 rhizoids a lot of it's kind of academic. The difference 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:54.520 is really between rhizoids and roots. In my opinion, I'm 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.680 going to get some mail about that, but I think 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.080 that they're very similar. Yeah, but I mean the fact 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.520 that it can grow on a rock kind of instead 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.800 of soil kind of says it all. Okay, so um, 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.880 in the uh gameta fight, you're gonna have, like I said, 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.560 your reproductive parts, both male and female. Um. And then 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:15.920 we'll mention this because it comes around later on when 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.840 we talk about the reproduction emerging from the top of 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.160 the female gameta fight is a sporta fight and a 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.800 thin stock called a sita, and a little brown ball 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.040 on top of that known as the um capsule. And 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.440 then on top of that is the a perculum, and 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.280 it's like a little hat that the capsule wears um 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.319 and that that comes into play. Uh well, let's talk 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.240 about how it gets nutrients. Then we'll talk about the 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.839 dirty stuff, the randy moss. Yeah exactly. That was a 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:49.280 pretty funny joke, that silly. Okay, so Um. A moss 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.200 needs a few things to live, and one of those 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.679 is water. Of course, possibly one of the most important 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:01.680 ingredients because it aids in not just the not just photosynthesis, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.760 but also in reproduction, which we'll see. I don't want 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.120 to get ahead of ourselves, boy, we've really built up 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:13.080 this sexy monster. Not as interesting as we're making it. Yeah, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.640 there's no like riding crops involved or anything like that. Well, 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.320 but there are parts yeah, okay, so um yeah, And 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.480 I was surprised by the number of parts. I didn't 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.200 realize they were that involved. I thought it was like, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:29.720 here's a spore, yeah, and go forth and reproduce um 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:35.200 anyway with with that water that moss needs because moss 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.040 mosses need like pretty much across the board. One of 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.960 their great characteristics is a moist environment, right, um, and 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.600 they need this water or they get this water since 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:46.959 they lack roots in a number of different ways. Some 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:51.679 have very absorbent leaf surfaces where you can pour drop 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.600 of water leaping and goes. It's just gone. It's pretty 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:59.040 amazing thing to watch, spongey sure. Um. And then another 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.960 way is the rise of ways, which although they aren't roots, 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.760 still managed to suck up water. And they do this 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:06.720 through capillary action in the same way that like a 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.160 paper towel. If you if you put a drop of 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.080 paper drop of water on your kitchen counter, ask your 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.240 mom first before doing this, because someone will freak out 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.080 on you if you do something like this, UM, put 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.640 a drop of water on your kitchen counter and take 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:27.040 a single thing of paper towel, set it next to it, 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:31.680 just barely touching, and the paper towel go suck it up. 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.240 It's amazing. That's capillary action and it's the result of 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.200 the UM adhesion. In this case, will say, with rhizomes, 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.520 the adhesion of a water molecule to the rhizome rhizoid 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:49.560 is greater than the UM cohesion between that water molecule 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.280 and all the other water molecules. As part of it's 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:58.440 a quicker picker upper nice. Uh So, once you've got 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.200 a little water in there, the water's gonna be moved 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:05.880 between cells um or transported through cells, depending on the moss. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.440 And then you're gonna get your photosynthesis, which is, you know, 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.240 part of being a plant. Do you like this analogy? 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.400 I didn't find it apt necessarily. I just ignored it. 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.240 So at the end of photosynthesis, you're gonna have sugar 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.400 and oxygen as a byproduct. Releases the oxygen like a 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.840 good little plant, and UM eats the sugar basically yeah 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.760 and says give me more. Yes, UM, So it converts 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.280 the sugar into energy to break down minerals say that 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.280 it's leaked from rocks or a tree stump or whatever 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.280 it's attached to to grow and to reproduce. That's right. 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:50.400 I think we're at the sexy moss point. Reproduction occurs 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.480 can occur in a couple of ways, and the first 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:57.040 way is UM. For the reproduction to begin, we're gonna 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:03.160 have to get a vase shaped um arcagonia. It's getting 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.080 all like a Georgia O'Keefe painting in here. It is um, 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.200 and that's gonna produce the eggs that develops at the 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.920 tip of the gameta fight, which we talked about. And 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.520 then on the male side, you've got the antheridia and 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:18.640 that produces a sperm, and the sperm swims through basically 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.960 fertilizes the eggs, which is why they need to be moist. 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.920 Like you said, the sperm swims through nearby water to 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.120 get to the egg. It's pretty remarkable. It's almost like 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.440 a fish. Yeah, but it's a sperm, that's right. So 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:36.560 it's more like a tadpole. Yeah, that's what you mean. Um. 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.720 And then the egg is sportlies. You're gonna get a 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.680 sporti fight. UM. We already talked about the SPORTI fight. 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:47.400 That's the tall, thin stalk with a little uh, a 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.000 perculum at the top. A perculum is gonna open up 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.600 at a certain point. That's the hat released. The tip 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.600 of the hat happens, releases the spores, which are basically 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:02.440 like seeds, and and uh, there you have it. Well, yes, 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.040 and then the spore goes and germinates like a seed. 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.919 This this is what I'm saying, rhizoid root, spore seed. 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.320 I mean, I know that there's some differences here, but 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:17.840 they're not that great anyway. The spore goes, lodges itself 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:23.200 into a different than every other plant, other millions of plants. Okay, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.720 I understand, I get it. I know that there are differences. 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.760 I'm just saying, like, the difference between the two is 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:33.000 not like a wow kind of thing for me. I 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.879 get you. I wish it was. I understand. I'm not 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:43.199 fighting it. Um So, the the the the spore germinates 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.359 into another plant and said, and the whole thing happens again, 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.280 hopefully not with any plant that it's related to though. 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.360 That's christ um So. The other way it can reproduce 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.480 is a sexually, which is pretty cool. Um and basically, 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.320 if you've got enough more sture and a piece of 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.639 moss breaks off and floats downstream or gets caught up 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:06.880 in the wind and it roots down in a nice 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.280 moist place, it'll reproduce. It'll just start growing again. It's 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:17.280 pretty amazing. But it doesn't root rhizoids, rhizomes rhizoids. What 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:23.720 is the I think I'm confusing ribo flaving with something 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:28.720 else to get rhizomes. Um. Okay, So we have healthy, 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:34.879 sexually active moss everywhere all over the place. We understand them. Um, 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.720 I mean we understand them now, Like that's moss right there. 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.200 Oh we like that. One interesting fact I thought, there's 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:44.120 their leaves. The tiny little leaves are so small, they're 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:48.880 very rarely one cell thick. Yeah that's tiny. Yeah, it's 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:53.600 neat um okay. So now that we understand moss, if 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.040 you have said I like moss a lot, I've seen 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.639 moss before. I want to bring more moss into my life. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.240 I happen to have a yard, so I'm gonna introduce 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.080 moss to it. We we we now can say, yes, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.919 here's how you do it, because we understand moss, and 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:11.919 here is how you do it. Yeah, And I like, 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.399 I like to look a moss like to go between 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.400 plants or like in Japanese gardens, mosses like big yeah 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.040 crazy big uh. So if you want to grow some moss, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.160 one thing you can do sometimes is just transplant, like 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.399 gently scrape it off that rock and a you know, 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.399 sort of like a big chunk of like a carpet 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.240 squares you can get and just throw it on the 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.920 ground and water it water, and sometimes that will be important. 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.280 It is yeah, not always um if you if you 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.800 put it in the right kind of place. Mosses require 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.240 low sunlight basically shade. In fact, if you have low 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.760 sunlight and you have trouble growing grass, moss is a 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.800 great alternative. It is very much so um you So 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.639 they want low sunlight or shade. UM, and they also 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:02.560 prefer low acidity um, lower acidity than turf grass prefers. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.400 So yeah, if you have a patchy piece of piece 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.280 of yard, moss might grow there very well. So and 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.000 just transplanting it like that could work, especially if you 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.280 keep it water. You can also um try propagating it 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.480 using a pretty ingenious little method of um taking a 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.080 clump a whole bunch of moss um thrown it in 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.119 a blender with some buttermilk and then taking that mixture 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:33.119 with the paintbrush and painting it wherever you want. Very cool. Yeah, buttermilk, 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:36.360 it just must be the wonder thing for the moss. Yeah, 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.480 it's like with the packed with nutrients. You also want 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.400 to take care of your moss um as as low 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:46.800 maintenance as it seems like. There is some things you 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.120 have to do, like leaves, twigs, that kind of stuff. 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:52.720 Since it's in a shady area, it's usually subject to 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.000 those things falling on top of it and then actually 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.919 will um burn it like acid. There won't be a 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:03.840 lot of growth in that area of your moss because 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.760 the leaf is preventing it from doing its thing. Yes, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.280 you want to clean it off like you with your carpet. Yes, 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.640 maybe with a very light broom, very light. Yeah, a 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.639 leafblower on a low setting, which you hate. Yeah, I 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.240 just don't like the noise. But in this case it 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.840 makes sense unless you have a very light broom, or 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.160 you could just pick these things off individually. If it's 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:29.080 got weeds, you don't want to yank the weeds out 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:30.760 because that can yank up moss. You don't want to 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:32.520 do that. So you just want to like snip it 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.359 with scissors, and it's no wonder. This is popular in 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.960 Japan because they're always more like tinder and carrying with 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.080 their gardens. Anyone who has the patients for like bonzai 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.760 and origami and things like that, well we'll snip weeds 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.040 with scissors. You mean. And I were in Kyoto and 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:53.800 witness the man cutting the grass at a park with scissors. Yeah, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:55.920 my neighbor used to do that in my old house. Man, 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.600 but Islam look awesome, all bat Yeah, Uh, I don't 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:04.600 have time for that crap. No one has time for that. 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.800 Um so yeah, keep it well fed, as in once 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.560 a year aside from the water. You're gonna want to 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.280 in mid spring, get out your butter milk again, so 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.240 basically like right now or like last week. Yeah, true, 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.000 get about a quarter bottom butter milk, mix it with 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.359 a couple of gallons of water, and uh, spray it, 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:27.800 spray it all over and missed your moss. They love missed. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:33.040 They drink it up literally. Yeah, well they use it 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.920 capillary action to drink it up, that's right, no roots involved. 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:39.240 Let's say you want to kill moss. Yeah, I thought 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:41.159 that This is very interesting. In this article, it's like 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:42.800 all pro moss, and then all of a sudden it 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.560 takes a really dark turn with the subject heading how 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.000 to kill moss. Well, some people don't want it, you know, 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.280 like they don't want ivy taking over their yard. They 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:55.040 don't want moss taking over their yards. Although they point 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:56.680 out in the article it's not going to take over 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.239 your lawn because it's not going to grow where your 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:03.920 lawn would grow. Right, it's a lighten up. But if 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.280 you're one of those people who are prone to slipping things, 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:10.840 you may not want that on your sidewalk. Um. You 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.920 definitely don't want moss on your roof. There's a sign 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:17.280 that you have a big problem if you have moss 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:19.719 on your roof, unless you are doing that on purpose, 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:21.879 like a green roof, Well, then you're not going to 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:24.399 have the kind of roof that you have to worry about. Exactly. 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.359 If you have a traditional shingled roof and you have moss, 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:29.320 you need to do something about it for a couple 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.760 of reasons. One, uh, it's the presence of moss. Trapped moisture. 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:36.840 Moss is designed to do that. If you're in an 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:41.640 into intelligent design theory. Um, and that means that it's 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:45.320 going to foster things like fungus that will decay the 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:47.720 wood beneath, meaning you'll have a hole in your roof 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:53.800 at some point. Um. The rhizomes, right, rhizoids, what is 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:57.000 wrong with me? I don't know. The rhizoids also like 0:23:57.080 --> 0:23:59.600 to get in between shingles and loosen them, that's right. 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:05.000 And what else? Uh? Well, I mean you don't want 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:06.719