The variety of Sphagna...

The delicate variety of Sphagna, begining to notice for myself the huge range of this wonderful species.
Seen with magnification these unassuming plants show the rich structures and forms used to grow in these difficult conditions. These plants have mastered the art of survival, when dried out they can survive without water for long periods and then come alive when water becomes available again.

beautiful and soft to touch....
always coexisting with lots of other mosses
 
Sphagnum acts as a sponge holding 20 times its dry weight of water

Sphagnum is what makes peat - it forms at 1mm a year - so 1m is 1000yrs old, the weight of the plant growth compressing the layers beneath.

The different spahgnum species forms a rich tapestry of living colour in the bog;red, orange, yellow, pink, green, ochre, brown, copper, red.

In Edinburgh again...

Edinburgh print workshop

Visiting again to try and print a series of things, peat stories, photographic separations of Sphagnum and some text, thinking about the layering of colours something I have avoided with using peat.

Being in Edinburgh I notice moss where it grows and makes use of places other plants can't manage as in this wall head beside the Water of Leith.