I am new to mosses. Yes, I am aware of little cushions of green moss on brick walls, sprawls of lime green moss in garden lawns, furry looking moss on tree barks, and carpets of deep green velvet moss on the edge of pavements and asphalt.
But mosses I have taken for granted. I never knew there were so many. Neither was I aware of their importance.
But look closer...and learn a little about them...and suddenly these seemingly inconspicuous tiny growths hold vital information we are only just beginning to unlock. And not only are they beautiful, they are massively important to the health of our environment - and ourselves.
They clean air and water, reduce flooding, help to trap and store carbon, they can remain dormant for decades, and they regenerate cloned copies of themselves when the going gets tough.
We need to look after them. They have, after all, been here since before the dinosaurs.
Mosses and liverworts are tiny plants that produce spores instead of flowers and seeds. They have no roots. Mosses and liverworts do differ, but they share enough important characteristics to be known collectively as bryophytes.
There are 1098 species of bryophyte in Britain and Ireland, which represents around 58 per cent of the total European flora, according to the British Bryological Society
This tiny organism grows everywhere on the planet from the ice fields of the Antarctic to the volcanic landscapes in Iceland, from the driest Sahara desert to the the humid Amazon rainforest.
Carpets of moss drape trees and smother boulders in the temperate 'rain forests' of the UK. Mosses are essential to life on earth.
Mosses are resilient and resourceful surviving extremes of temperature, pollution and radiation. And therefore they are vital to scientific knowledge.
At the other extreme, such is their importance spiritually that in Japan mosses are revered and allowed to cover sacred sites.
In Japan, it is the moss' uniformity of colour, as opposed to the striking colours of flowering plants, which is exactly what brings spiritual harmony and peace of mind. A mindfulness plant.
So while you are out walking in the town or country - keep a look out for mosses. Get up close. Note the colour, the shape of its tiny, tiny leaves, how it grows, the spore cases. If you get quite fascinated, look up their names - they usually have intriguingly descriptive names - and as your fascination grows, a small magnifying glass will highlight the moss' intricate beauty.
However you decide to follow this up, enjoy, and be present. Think how you would describe what's in front of you. Where has this moss made its home? Take a note book and sketch what you see. Take a photo with your phone. Try in words - your words - to capture what you see and how it has made you feel.
The Magical World of Moss is a documentary on BBC4 (February 2023) which explores the vital role that mosses play in the earth’s evolution and how science is only beginning to unlock the secrets and potential of these amazing plants. And if this little knowledge of mosses sparks an interest, I urge you to follow life-long plant enthusiast, botanist and author LeifBersweden. He's on Instagram with his mosses and wild flower knowledge @LeifBersweden and has been running a 'get-to-know-your-mosses' challenge which you can find on Instagram: #CouchTo10Mosses