Green and Together

By Madeline Bueno

Moss growing on a cedar tree

How do we live in a world that’s so beautiful and wondrous and yet take it for granted?

A couple days ago, I was in my room thinking back on my Fall semester and I remembered how happy I was surrounded by all my friends at school.

I had recently learned what a bryophyte was. Before that, all I knew was that bryophytes had to do with plants. Then, I learned that mosses are bryophytes. I was shocked that I never knew this before because mosses are some of my favorite plants. Mosses are such beautiful, green flourishes on the forest floor. I always did enjoy the different variations of green that they depict, and I love how mosses carpet the ground and the trees.

The day I learned about mosses being bryophytes I thought “I wish we, humans, could be more like mosses and bryophytes.” I was not wishing that we were all literal mosses growing from the ground, or that we should be green and covered with small spores. I just wish that, like bryophytes, we could all come together. Mosses are rarely alone. I usually find them in big groups and it’s amazingly beautiful when their greenish meadow fills a forest.

So, why can’t we be like bryophytes and come together to fight this current situation?

While we cannot literally come together right now, we can only follow the new “normal” and continue to stay safe inside our homes. So, why can’t we be inspired by these bryophytes to follow our new norms to get to greener days?

Madeline Bueno is 21 years and lives in NYC majoring in biology at Utica college. She truly enjoys all things nature.

Photo from Wikimedia.

Learn more about bryophytes from the Australian National Botanic Gardens.