Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

What we know about moss’s natural history and its cultural relationships forms a powerful metaphor for how we live in the world. Living on the edges of our everyday perception, moss is a common but unobtrusive element of nature. We only notice it now and then—in cracks of city asphalt, on the trunks of trees, or on the surface of stones.

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book on bryology is not an identification guide and not a scientific treatise. Rather, it’s a series of connected personal essays about the life of moss—woven together with the lives of countless other beings, from salmon and hummingbirds to fungi, bacteria, and rural gardeners. Kimmerer explains the biology of moss in an engaging way, while also reflecting on what these surprising organisms might teach us.

Drawing on her varied experience as a scientist, a mother, a member of the Indigenous community, and a professional observer accustomed to looking closely to see something important, Robin Wall Kimmerer tells diverse moss stories in scientific terms—but also within ways of knowing characteristic of Indigenous tribes.

In her book, natural history and moss’s cultural relationships become a powerful metaphor for life in the world.