MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
When it comes to plants, some really command our attention. Redwoods - so majestic. Roses - elegant. And then there's moss - you know, the green stuff, looks like carpet. It doesn't usually get a lot of love. But in Portland, Oregon, some college students have been trying to change that. Deena Prichep takes us to the seventh annual Moss Appreciation Week.
DEENA PRICHEP: At the library at Lewis & Clark College, kids are reading, playing chess and also checking out the moss petting zoo. It's a couple dozen chunks of moss that get misted every few hours.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPRAY BOTTLE SQUIRTING)
PRICHEP: People stop by and gently stroke them. Here's Robin Anderson, Saph Leeper and Alex Nash.
ROBIN ANDERSON: It kind of makes me think of, like, if you had the opportunity to pet a Muppet, this is what you would encounter.
SAPH LEEPER: I don't think there is a moss with a bad texture.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.
LEEPER: And that's my hot take.
ALEX NASH: I like how it just sort of looks like a bunch of carpet samples.
PRICHEP: Outside, you can walk a trail through the campus woods, where speakers on the moss-covered trees play the word for moss in various languages, and then get a cup of hot cider and moss-covered snacks. Well, not actual moss, says Soff Olmedo, who did the baking last night.
SOFF OLMEDO: Cupcakes, with matcha cake on top that make them look like moss, stuck together with some chocolate frosting.
PRICHEP: There are moss walks, moss talks, moss, movies, moss valentines. There are even students dressed as moss, sort of draped over logs.
Do you want to tell me what it's like to be moss?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Green. I'm feeling very green right now.
PRICHEP: It is silly and scientific and makes you wonder, why all this fuss over moss? This event was started by a student at Lewis & Clark here in Portland, who spent the summer working with moss and got kind of fascinated. And then the school's Natural History Club picked it up from there.
Professor Jenna Ekwealor runs San Francisco State University's moss lab and spoke at last year's Moss Appreciation Week. She's happy to see moss getting some love.
JENNA EKWEALOR: They're tiny plants, but they're different from most plants we see. They don't have any roots, so they take in all of their water straight through their leaves.
PRICHEP: Ekwealor says because mosses don't really need soil and because they can survive long droughts, they can grow where a lot of other plants can't.
EKWEALOR: They are actually in every habitat, from the highest mountaintops to the driest valleys.
PRICHEP: And they play an important role.
EKWEALOR: They prevent erosion and runoff. They act like sponges out there, and they can purify or clean air and water.
PRICHEP: Mosses have been around for 400 million years, according to Ekwealor. She says a mosslike ancestor helped create the oxygen levels that made human life possible.
EKWEALOR: Part of the reason that they have been sort of neglected or underappreciated over time is simply because they're small, and it takes some work to lean in and look at this tiny thing.
PRICHEP: And when you take a close look, it can change your perspective. At Moss Appreciation Week, sophomore Deenie Bulyalert says it might seem silly to kneel down and look at plants that are so common.
DEENIE BULYALERT: But I think it is so profound because it's little things that we don't even notice every single day.
PRICHEP: Lewis & Clark's Moss Appreciation Week runs through Friday, but moss itself, of course, can be appreciated anytime. Just look around.
From Portland, Oregon, I'm Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF KALOS' "ALLEN WATER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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