BY ROBERT DALE ROGERS, RH(AHG)

As spring returns in the Northern Hemisphere and Earth Day approaches, moss invites us to look down instead of up—to the quiet green layer that has been healing land and water for millennia.

The word moss derives from the Old English mos, meaning a bog or the vegetation growing in it. It stems from the Latin muscus, and further back, from the Indo-European meu, meaning “damp.”

The interior of it is rich in algae and other life. According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) and the founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, “One gram of moss from the forest floor, a piece about the size of a muffin, would harbor 150,000 protozoa, 132,000 tardigrades, 3000 springtails, 800 rotifers, 500 nematodes, 400 mites and 200 fly larvae.”

Mosses are incredibly hardy, surviving dry conditions and then recovering with moisture. Cryptobiosis is a term that describes the reversible state of being whereby metabolic processes cease. This allows for periods of survival under intense or adverse climate conditions.

A 2017 study found moss surviving in Antarctica after six centuries of glacial burial. After the retreat of the glacier, some of it survived and returned to a metabolic state. The genetic pathways involved may have implications for the fields of medicine, agriculture, biodiversity, and space exploration.

Mosses have long been used in medicine, with early citations in European literature dating back to the sixteenth century. Cultures around the world, including India and China, as well as Indigenous healers from North America, have also made use of mosses for healing.

Interest in moss medicine diminished greatly in the 1880s due to the emergence of pharmaceutical medicine, but has recently revived thanks to the work of countless diligent scientists and researchers, as well as practitioners of various forms of natural healing.

Historical Uses of Moss in Europe

Mosses have no roots and therefore absorb water and nutrients from the air. Water moves osmotically from cell to cell, thus the diminutive size of the organisms. On the other hand, the tiniest piece of it can regenerate into another.

A fascinating use of bryophytes arose in the 1500s and involved moss growing on the skulls of the dead. The first mention of skull moss was by the Swiss physician Paracelsus, also known as Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541). In his book Die Grosse Wundartzney (1536), he mentions “das mies auf den toten Köpfen,” “moss from the skull of the dead.”

Around this same time, the physician, botanist, and herbalist Jacobus Theodorus, known as Tabernaemontanus (1525–1590), considered the father of German botany, published Nuew Kreuterbuch (roughly “New Herb Book”) in 1588.

A 1590 edition includes an image of a human skull with moss growing on its surface. Later editions record that medics and apothecaries would place human skulls in damp places so they could be overgrown with moss, which “crawl back and forth like a long rough worm.”

Tabernaemontanus suggested using dried and powdered skull moss for bleeding. Flemish physician and botanist Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585) recorded that decoctions of skull mosses were useful for mitigating heavy menstrual flow in women, stopping nosebleeds, and mixing them into a variety of unguents and astringent oils.

English herbalist John Gerard (15451612) published an English translation of Dodoen’s work in 1597, resulting in Gerard’s Great Herball. He used an image produced earlier by Tabernaemontanus with the following text:

This kind of Mosse is found vpon the scull or bare scalpes of men and women, lying long in charnell houses, and other places where the bones of men are kept together: it growth very thicke, white, like vnto the short Mosse vpon the trunkes of olde Oakes: it is thought to be a singular remedie against the falling euill, and the Chincough in children if it be powdered, and then gluen in sweet wine, for certaine daies together (Gerard 1597).

Chincough was the term used then to refer to whooping cough or pertussis.

A preparation called weapon salve was an ointment containing skull moss, often combined with human fat, powdered mummy, and human blood. It was believed that weapon salve could heal remotely over great distances as well. Astrologer and alchemist John Dee (1527–1609) claimed:

[This concoction] can heal patients at a thirty-mile distance. Instead of applying the medicine directly to the wound, the medical practitioner needs to apply it to the bloodied weapon that caused it, or, in its absence, an object made from a similar material to the weapon after it has been dipped into the wound.

More extraordinary still, the medicine requires various ingredients extracted from corpses: skull moss, human fat and blood, and powdered mummy.

The main use of skull moss, however, was in the treatment of epilepsy and nervous afflictions. Homalothecium sericeum, commonly found growing on walls in England and Ireland, was collected to be grown on skulls for this medical purpose. English physician William Salmon (1644–1733) even suggested skull moss for the treatment of bleeding following amputation of a limb.

Mosses conjure up all kinds of emotions. They are associated with antiquity and aging, beauty, quiet, cemeteries, seclusion, loneliness, retrospection, and death. German and Norse “moss folk” were said to resemble the Greek dryads, the “little people” living in the forest.

The Grimm Brothers described these moss people as clad in moss, hanging out in dark forests, usually in hollow trees, or dwelling in a bed of it. Females were known as moosfräulein, “moss ladies,” and their queen was called Buschgroßmutter, “Shrub Grandmother.” They are reminiscent of Irish leprechauns in that they borrow things but are also helpful to humans. A gift of caraway bread was said to anger them. During plagues and epidemics, these folk would show people medicinal herbal cures.

My friend and colleague Dr. Jim Butler collects elemental stories from around the world. I have no personal experience with such beings, but on a recent trip to Reykjavik, Iceland, I came across many people willing to share their stories of the diminutive folk.

While driving down a busy, straight highway, it suddenly took a wide turn around a pile of rocks and then resumed. When I inquired later, I was told that little people lived in the rocks, and the powers that be ordered the detour to appease the populace.

The Lawn Controversy

The North American obsession with growing grass lawns is an ecological disaster. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, lawn care, including golf courses, uses one-third of the public water supply—roughly nine billion gallons daily. It is estimated that 80% of American households have grass lawns covering some 28 million acres.

And those noisy, smelly gas lawnmowers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers use 200 million gallons of fuel, adding to air pollution, not to mention the environmental impact of fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides.

In contrast to the wasteful practice of growing grass lawns, it is estimated that a mat of moss measuring 60 by 80 cm turns one kilogram of carbon dioxide into one kilogram of oxygen annually. Overall, algae, liverworts, and mosses sequester some 14 billion tons of CO2 and fix 50 billion tons of nitrogen annually. Moss gardens also invite beneficial insects, frogs, and other endangered species. Deer do not eat it, which is an added bonus in many neighborhoods.

Other uses include erosion control, flood mitigation, and water filtration of oil, detergents, dyes, and remediation of heavy metals and pharmaceutical seepage. Some of the more common varieties of mosses used in moss landscaping are Polytrichum commune and Bartramia pomiformis.

Moss lawns are great for the environment and do not require mowing. They rarely require weeding, don’t use fertilizers, and can grow on low-nutrient soil. Some estimates suggest a small velvet carpet moss lawn absorbs more carbon than 275 mature trees, produces oxygen, and requires periodic watering.

Gardening and the Moss Propagation Milkshake

To propagate many species of moss to make a garden, you can make a moss milkshake.

• Take moss and place in a blender with a litre of buttermilk/water and give it a quick pulse to a green froth. I personally find mixing dry pieces of it in beer works great. You are not making a smoothie, just making the moss into a sticky paste.

• Next, paint a thick coating of this mixture onto rocks in order to yield a moss garden within two years.

• Optional: Add some polymer crystals or powder, available at nurseries, which helps by absorbing water and producing a slimy gel.

You can create more moss if your garden already contains it by brushing this liquid on rocks or sprinkling moss powder. The best time is spring or fall, during cooler, humid weather. You can purchase sphagnum peat moss blocks to which spores easily adhere. You can later cut to the desired shape. And don’t forget to water as growth begins.

Alum will create the right soil pH for moss growth. If your soil is quite alkaline, the addition of sulfur or aluminum sulfate can adjust the pH to around pH 5, which is ideal. For example, if your soil is pH 7 (neutral), you would need less than two kilograms of sulfur per 30 square meters to obtain an optimal level.

The Popular, Multi-Functional Sphagnum Moss

The uses of sphagnum moss, commonly called peat moss, one of the most widely known forms of moss, can be traced back to The Annals of Loch Cé, which notes its use for wounds suffered in the Battle of Clontarf, near Dublin, Ireland, in 1014 AD.

In Germany in 1882, a peat worker was unable to treat his open fracture wound on his forearm, so he stuffed it with dry sphagnum, and when a doctor examined it ten days later, it had healed. The two species mainly used were Sphagnum papillosum and S. palustre.

Sphagnum has traditionally been woven with wool in northern Europe. The Anishinabe, a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States, used Sphagnum dusenii in sleeping mattresses.

The Saomi (Sámi) of northern Scandinavia used sphagnum moss in baby cradles and for diapers and menstrual pads, according to Linnaeus in his 1737 work Flora Lapponica. It was the first disposable diaper material because of its absorbency (sphagnum moss is capable of retaining twenty times its weight in water) and offers natural disinfecting properties. It was possibly used by various Indigenous women as a contraceptive “sponge” to obstruct sperm.

The Dena’ina people of Alaska use red sphagnum for any injury involving swelling, broken bones, blood poisoning, or serious ear or eye problems. It is boiled, and the afflicted area is held over the steam that results, with the moss then placed on the skin. An ointment can also be made by mixing the dried moss with animal or bird fat to treat cuts.

For ear troubles, hot rocks are surrounded by wet red sphagnum in a birch bark container and then placed on the patient’s head so that the steam enters the ears. Sphagnum magellanicum, commonly called Magellan’s peat moss, is soaked in cold water and applied to treat headaches and lung problems, and it is also used for sanitary napkins and diapers. Interestingly, a moss sanitary napkin introduced in 1991 by the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson did not initially attract consumer interest.

An unusual traditional use occurs in places where moss, known as uske or muskak by the Cree, is plentiful for building moss houses. These houses were built of blocks of it cut in the fall, just after it starts to freeze. In the spring, the blocks were stored until the next fall, when the good ones would be reused. A fireplace was built in the middle, and gravel stones were built up about one foot to serve as a footing. As the ground thawed, more stones were placed on the platform.

Sphagnum moss puts hydrogen ions into the water in exchange for cations of calcium, magnesium, and sodium. The addition of hydrogen makes the water more acidic, making bogs and fens more so in this direction. This natural acidity contributes to sphagnum’s antimicrobial activity.

The pH of water at the edge of a sphagnum bog may be 4.3, the equivalent of dilute vinegar. Work by Varley and Barnett (1987) cites evidence from controlled testing that the amount of wound area covered by new epidermis doubled using sphagnum dressing compared to none.

Sphagnum is used today to clean up heavy metals, PCPs, and toxic wastes, including oil spills and dyes. It is very effective at removing nitrogen (96%) and phosphorus (97%) from rivers and wastewater. It absorbs up to twelve times its weight in petrochemical spills. Many bryophytes are hydrophobic and lipophilic, meaning they repel water and absorb oils. The hummock species, Sphagnum fuscum, S. capillifolium, and S. rubellum have been shown to remove biofilms from pools, reducing the need for chemicals by 90%.

Peat mosses are burned in the distillation of Scotch whisky, giving a distinct smoky taste to single malt varieties. In some whiskeys, the grains are first steeped in water from a sphagnum peatland during the malting stage. These include Ardbeg, Highland Park, Octomore, Laphroaig, and Talisker. The smoky flavor is derived from drying the malt over a peat fire.

Various types have been used worldwide to pack fruit and mushrooms for shipment. In Great Britain, they were used as temporary stuffing for taxidermy and to pack bomb sights during World War II. In other parts of Europe, it helped protect against the sharpness of blades and daggers during shipment.

Indigenous peoples of Japan, Alaska, and Siberia used it for funerals. In Siberia, they were used to fit together birch bark sheets to line the roof of tombs, some over 2,500 years old.

The Guanche mummies from the Canary Islands, dating back to 1380, were found with Exsertotheca intermedia (syn. Neckera intermedia)in their abdominal cavities.

Sphagnol, a tar-like pitch derived from sphagnum, was isolated in 1899 and used in ointments and medicated soaps until the 1960s. Each soap bar contained 15% pure sphagnol. It is very useful for external application in cases of eczema, psoriasis, skin itching, mosquito bites, hemorrhoids, chilblains, acne, and scabies. During both World Wars, the British Red Cross used this soap to treat facial wounds.

Sphagnan, a pectin-like polysaccharide, was isolated from sphagnum moss in 1983 and was found to inhibit bacterial growth and remove ammonia from microbial environments.

From a distance, it can seem like a simple green film on stone, soil, or bark. Look closer, and it becomes a densely inhabited world, a time-tested medicine, and an ally in restoring damaged landscapes.

Whether it is cushioning a child in a cradle, cooling a wound on the battlefield, filtering toxins from water, or quietly outcompeting a thirsty lawn, moss continues to blur the line between mineral and plant, culture and ecology.

In that modest carpet underfoot is a reminder that some of the most enduring forms of healing—of bodies, homes, and ecosystems—arrive not with fanfare, but in small, persistent layers that hold water, life, and memory all at once.

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Robert Dale Rogers, RH(AHG), is an herbalist with more than fifty years of experience in clinical practice and the classroom. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. A former clinical professor in family medicine at the University of Alberta, he lives in Alberta, Canada.

Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from Moss Medicine: Indigenous Wisdom & Modern Pharmacology by Robert Dale Rogers, Copyright by Robert Dale Rogers. Printed with permission of Healing Arts Press, a division of Inner Traditions International. www.innertraditions.com/moss-medicine