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Selects: How Moss Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello friends, Charles W. Chuck Bryan here on a Saturday.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Well it's really a Tuesday. Actually it's a Thursday, but
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in your world it's a Saturday. So let's just pretend
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: it's Saturday. This episode Everybody is about Moss. Is Moss boring? No,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: not at all. Moss is actually really cool and if
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you listen to this episode from June, you'll learn it
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: for yourself. So check it out. Everybody, how Moss works.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, who now refuses to do
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the cheeks everyone. So I can't vouch for how good
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the episodes will be from this point on. Cheeks are done.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I don't care about them anymore. We'll see, okay, I mean,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: if we started nos dive, you're doing the cheaks again. Nope.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I will seek to it that you do the cheeks.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You can't do it, well, well I will stand on
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: your chest. Ben will grab one cheek, Jerry will grab
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the other, and the cheeks will be done. That for
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: people who don't know we're talking about and it sounds
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: like really gross. So everybody knows what we're talking about.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Chuck does a little cheek poll to start off each episode.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: It's a little good luck charm. And now he's suddenly
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: decided he's not going to do that anymore. So I
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: have a new good luck charm. What is it? It's
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: called not doing cheeks. It's not it's a bad luck.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So I've got a joke for you to open this
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: one up? Do you really? And I made it up today.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: It's a made up joke. I don't want to hear.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: What do you call a reproducing sphagnum? What, Randy Moss?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: That's pretty good? Not bad? No, no, no, that's that's
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: into the realm of pretty good. Yeah, yeah, that's good.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I think if I was a tour guided a like
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a nature, like a firm, bank, science and or something
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that would be my go to for the kids to
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: try and identify with them. I don't think the kids
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: would like it as much as maybe the teacher. The
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: teacher would be like, that's pretty funny. And by the way,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: those Brownie high socks you're wearing are great. Um, well,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give an intro an addition to the joke.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: The intro joke. Maybe that should be your new good
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: luck thing you tell you make a joke, make up
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a joke for every That would be welcome back Carter.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Did they have a joke for everyone? Yeah? He introde
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: every show by or maybe it was outrode by telling
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a joke to his wife. Oh yeah, I hadn't picked
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: up on that. I only saw like maybe two episodes
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of that show. Well then you heard two jokes, yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: plus all the other jokes. Was his wife one and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the same with um Bailey from w carp. Didn't they
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: look alike? Were they the same person? I don't know
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: if they were the same person, but they definitely seem
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the same. And they both were gasses. They had the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: feathered hat, long feathered haired seventies ladies. Yeah. I don't
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: think they were the same though, but they were both
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: probably in the love boat. Yes, yes, within five years
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: as like a way to revitalize their career. Um, Chuck,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I was going to talk about the ice age, the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: beginning of the ice age, or of ice ages glacial periods.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Remember right now we're in the midst of an interglacial period, right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I want you to think back way back four hundred
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and seventy million years ago, there was no such thing
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: as a glacial period, and by proxy, there was no
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: such thing as an interglacial period. All we had was
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: one hot, soupy, barren mess of land and ocean, and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that was it. That's right. This is what's called the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Ordovician period or or Dvichan period, depending on where you
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: come from. Uh and uh. The the beginning of this
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: period is characterized by ice ages, and um paleo geologists
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I guess you could just call them geologists really, because
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: nobody's studying like present stuff very much. It's mostly paleo geology, right.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: They were like, where did this ice age come from? Where?
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Like when did this start? And they figured out that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: what triggered this was the arrival of the very first
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: basic land plants e g. Mosses, that's right. And they
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: recently figured out, um, that mosses came about about four
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: seventy million years ago, and they triggered these ice ages
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: by latching onto rocks. So these were a certain type
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of moss as you and I know, called granite mosses,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and they would actually leech materials from these rocks to
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: use as nutrients and minerals. Right, these are like wheaties
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: for moss. Early moss, Well, the moss started releasing stuff,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: releasing uh no, sucking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: enough to reduce the global temperature mean temperature by eight
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: degrees centigrade, which led to the beginning of ice ages
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and the ice age periods that we know and love.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: You can thank moss for. You go outside, you find
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a little bit of moss, You grab a little piece
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: of it gently and then shake it sand shake it
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a little, say thanks for the ice ages. Well, we
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: needed ice ages. Yeah, that remains to be seen. No,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: it's all part of the big soup. We've had some doubt.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: We've had some chilly, windy weather lately, and it has
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: been getting to me like it's been like just seeing
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the trees, like getting whipped outside makes me feel chilly
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and then in turn I feel socially isolated and mad. Wow. Yeah,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: it's been really windy. Yeah. Crazy. So we're talking about moss.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: This is no joke. April is over by now. We're
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in it right now, but by the time it comes out.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: This is no April fool's joke. We're talking about moss
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and how it works, because it's part of our long
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: parade of explaining absolutely everything in the no In universe
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that's right at mosses. Moss is part of that. It's
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: part of that. So let's talk about moss. Well, moss
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: is pretty fun and unique in some ways. If you
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: ask me, uh, because unlike most flowering plants and trees,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: or let me go ahead and say it, all flowering prants,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: prants in trees, Um, they don't have roots like traditional
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: root systems. Moss doesn't know mosses don't. They do not. Um,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: they don't germinate from seeds. Pretty weird. And uh, they
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: don't gush water around through internal systems and systems. Yeah,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and that's weird. It is, especially if you're familiar with plants.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Then you're like, well, when moss is strangely for somebody,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: you know, an average bystander like me, I'm like, okay, well,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: moss doesn't do that and plants do. It doesn't seem
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: particularly weird to me, but I do find it intriguing.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: It makes me want to know more about moss. Well,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: you've got about fifteen thousand species. If you want to
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: talk about moss. Uh, Traditionally you were probably going to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: think of moss as the true moss. Well, let's back
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: up a little bit. They're related to the liver wort
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and hornwart. Yeah, I've seen I saw other articles on moss,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and everybody points that out for some reason. I'm I'm
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: not sure if they're like, I gotta put ten things
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: in about moss, and that's what I got nine until's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: put that. Uh they are in the phylum uh Brio fida,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and they're in three groups. You've got the granite mosses,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the pete mosses, and true mosses. Um. True mosses are
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: probably what we're going to think of when you think
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of the little green carpet like padding that you see
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: every kind of fallen tree, uniforest or something. Yeah, and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: there are tons of true moss, like fourteen thousand species um.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Granite mosses are blackish, small growing Arctic regions in the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: mountains on rocks. They're the most ancient moss apparently, that's right.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And they're only about a hundred species of that. And
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: then the final sub group is the pete moss grows
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in bogs. Have you ever been in a bog, then
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you've probably seen some petemas or sphagnum moss, right, And
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: that's the money moss because you can burn it and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: convert it to electricity and charge money for it. That's
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: why it. Sphagnum is the money moss. And oddly or
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: not oddly but remarkably moss. The sphagnum moss do you
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: use as a soil conditioner. We do that in our
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: garden because some of it can hold twenty times it's
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: dry weight and water. It's pretty amazing. That's very amazing.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: That's some strong moss. You're gonna find moss all over
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the place, including places where you won't find any other
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: living plants, like the bottom of an Arctic or Antarctic lake.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: That is pretty impressive. Like the only multi cellule or
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: plant growing down there is moss. And it grows really slow.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I think as little as one centimeter per year, this
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: aquatic moss at the bottom of these frozen lakes. And
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that is the slowest growing and longest living a fresh
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: water plant ever recorded, I would guess. So it's kind
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of like um putting somebody on ice, right, slowing down
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the cellular processes, but they're still active. So you could
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: by by in theory extend their lifespan, right, that's right,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: same thing with moss. Yeah, it's probably even easier with moss.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And by that same token, um, the zombie moss. I
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: thought it was pretty cool. Yeah, you could dry some
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: mosses out for nineteen years without water, and if you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: add water to it, it'll you knows itself, it'll turn
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: into a big dinosaur. It's pretty cool though. They can
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: go dormant for that long. Yeah, it's amazing, And all
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: mosses can go dormant's like one of their defense mechanisms.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Still just turn brown and dry out and there an
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: endormant state. Unfortunately, you can't really tell, like what the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: differences between dead and dormant until you add water and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: see if it comes back. That's the only way to
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: determine the length of a moss's dormancy. Oh so if
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you add water and it just stays dead, then it
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: was dead. That's sad. Um. So you said there's like
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: fifteen thousand species and they kind of range in size
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and shape and texture color. Um, some of the I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: think the peat mosses grow different colors like rose yea,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: some grow black like the granite moss. You said some
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: are silver, which is amazing. Um. And then there's the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: smallest mosses, the Ephemorum, which is uh half a millimeter tall.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: That's crazy, that's adult size. Um. And then there's the Dawsonia,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: which is up to almost thirty inches seventy centimeters in height,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: which that's pretty wide variety. Okay, some moss is fairly interesting.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: So far, let's talk about the individual plants. Because when
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you look at um moss and you think about moss,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you're thinking of a carpet of plants, right, Those are
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: actually like a bunch of little plants put together. Correct. Yeah, okay, yeah, sure,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: that's that's one way I think of it. So when
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: you're when you're talking about moss um, when you're talking
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: about the individual parts or the individual plants, they're pretty simple.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: They're pretty basic. You have um something called the gameta
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: fight which is the stem and the leaves. Right, that's right.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: The leaves are generally arranged in a spiral pattern. Uh.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And the leaves are usually um a lance shaped with
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: like a point. Right. That's where you're gonna find your
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: reproductive parts, right. Um. At the bottom, there's rhizoids instead
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: of roots. Remember, these are not roots and um, so
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: they don't anchor themselves to anything necessarily. They will the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: anchor themselves to like maybe organic material something, but it's
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: not into the dirt um. And they also don't they
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: don't suck up water in the same way that roots do,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: but they do use rhizoids a lot of it's kind
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: of academic. The difference is really between rhizoids and roots.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: In my opinion. Sure, I'm going to get some mail
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: about that, but I think that they're very similar. Well yeah,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: but I mean the fact that it can grow on
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: a rock kind of instead of soil kind of says
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: it all excellent. Okay, So um in the uh gamda fight,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have, like I said, you're reproductive parts both
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: mail and male um. And then we'll mention this because
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: it comes around later on when we talk about the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: reproduction emerging from the top of the female gameta fight
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: is a sporta fight and a thin stock called a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: sita and a little brown ball on top of that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: known as the um capsule, right, and then on top
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: of that is the a perculum, and it's like a
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: little hat that the capsule wears um and that that
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: comes into play. Uh, well, let's talk about how it
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: gets nutrients. Then we'll talk about the dirty stuff, the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Randy moss. Yeah exactly. That was a pretty funny joke.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: That was silly, Okay. So um, A moss needs a
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: few things to live, and one of those is water,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: of course, possibly one of the most important ingredients, because
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: it aids in not just the not just photosynthesis, but
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: also in reproduction, which we'll see. Yeah. I don't want
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to get ahead of ourselves. Boy, we've really built up
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: this sexy monster. Not as interesting as we're making it. Yeah,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: there's no like riding crops involved or anything like that. Well,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: but there are parts. Yeah, all right, okay, so um. Yeah,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: and I was surprised by the number of parts. I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: didn't realize they were that involved. I thought it was like,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: here's a spore and go forth and reproduce. Um anyway,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: with with that water that moss needs because moss mosses
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: need like pretty much across the board. One of their
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: great characteristics is a moist environment, right, um, And they
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: need this water or they get this water since they
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: lack roots in a number of different ways. Some have
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: very absorbent leaf surfaces where you can pour drop of
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: water on a leaf and it goes. It's just gone.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing thing to watch. Spongey. Sure. Um. And
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: then another way is the rizhoids, which although they aren't roots,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: still managed to suck up water. And they do this
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: through capillary action in the same way that like a
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: paper towel. If you if you put a drop of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: paper drop of water in your hitchen counter, ask your
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: mom first before doing this, because someone will freak out
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: on you if you do something like this. Um, put
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a drop of water on your kitchen counter and take
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a single thing of paper towel, set it next to it,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: just barely touching, and the paper towel go suck it up.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. That's capillary action and it's the result of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the UM adhesion. In this case, let's say with rhizomes,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the adhesion of water molecule to the rhizome rhizoid is
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: greater than the UM cohesion between that water molecule and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: all the other water molecules. It's part of it's a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: quicker picker upper nice. Uh. So once you've got a
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: little water in there, the water is going to be
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: moved between cells um or transported through cells depending on
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the moss, and then you're gonna get your photosynthesis, which is,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: you know, part of being a plant. Did you like
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: this analogy? I didn't find it apt necessarily. I just
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: ignored it. So at the end of photosynthesis, you're gonna
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: have sugar and oxygen as a byproduct. Releases the oxygen
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: like a good little plant, and um eats the sugar
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: basically yeah and says give me more, yes, UM, So
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: it converts the sugar into energy to break down. Minerals
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: say that it's leaked from rocks or a tree stump
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: or whatever it's attached to to grow and to reproduce.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: That's right. I think we're at the sexy moss point.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Reproduction occurs can occur in a couple of ways, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the first way is UM. For the reproduction tube. Again,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: we're gonna have to get a vase shaped um arcagonia.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: It's getting all like a Georgia O'Keefe painting in here.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: It is UM and that's gonna produce the eggs. It
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: develops at the tip of the gameta fight, which we
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: talked about. And then on the male side you've got
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the antheridia and that produces a sperm, and the sperm
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: swims through basically fertilizes the eggs, which is why they
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: need to be moist. Like you said, the sperm swims
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: through nearby water to get to the egg. It's pretty remarkable.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: It's almost like a fish. Yeah, but it's a sperm,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: that's right, So it's more like a tadpole. Yeah, that's
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: what you mean. Um. And then the egg getspur lies.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: You're gonna get a spora fight. Um. We already talked
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: about the SPORTI fight. That's the tall, thin stalk with
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a little uh, a perculum at the top. A perculum
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: is gonna open up at a certain point. That's the
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: hat released. The tip of the hat happens, releases the spores,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: which are basically like seeds, and uh, there you have it. Well, yes,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: and then the spore goes and germinates like a seed.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: This this is what I'm saying, rhizoid root, spore seed.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know that there's some difference is here,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: but they're not that great anyway. The spore goes, lodges
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: itself into a It's different than every other plant, every
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: other millions of plants. Okay, I understand I get it.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I know that there are differences. I'm just saying, like
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the difference between the two is not like a wow
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: kind of thing for me. I get you. I wish
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: it was. I understand. I'm not fighting yet. Um. So
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the the the the spore germinates into another plant and said,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing happens again, hopefully not with any
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: plant that it's related to though. That's chriss um. So
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the other way it can reproduce is a sexually which
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: is pretty cool. Um. And basically, if you've got enough
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: moisture and a piece of moss breaks off and floats
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: downstream or gets caught up in the wind and it
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: roots down in a nice and moist place, it'll reproduce.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: It'll just start growing again. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. But
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: it doesn't root rhizomes, rhizomes, rhizoids. What is the I
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: think I'm confusing riboflaving with something else to get rhizomes. Um. Okay,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: so we have healthy, sexually active moss everywhere all over
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the place. We understand them. Um, I mean we understand
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: them now, Like that's moss right there. Oh we left
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: that one interesting fact. I thought, there's their leaves. The
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: tiny little leaves are so small, they're very rarely one
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: cell thick. Yeah that's tiny. Yeah, it's neat um. Okay,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: So now that we understand moss, if you have said
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I like moss a lot, I've seen moss before. I
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: want to bring more moss into my life. I happen
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to have a yard, so I'm going to introduce moss
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: to it. We we we now can say, yes, here's
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: how you do it, because we understand moss, and here
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: is how you do it. Yeah, and I I like
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the look a moss like to go between plants or
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: like in Japanese gardens, mosses like big, yeah, crazy big. Uh.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: So if you want to grow some moss, one thing
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you can do sometimes is just transplant, like gently scrape
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: it off that rock and a you know, sort of
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: like a big chunk of like a carpet squares you
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: can get and just throw it on the ground and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: water it water, and sometimes that will be important. It is, yeah,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: not always um if you if you put it in
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the right kind of place. Mosses require low sunlight basically shade.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you have low sunlight and you have
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: trouble growing grass, moss is a great alternative. It is
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: very much so um you So they want low sunlight
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: or shade um and they also prefer low acidity um,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: lower acidity than turf grass prefers. So yeah, if you
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: have a patchy piece of piece of yard, moss might
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: grow there very well. So and just transplanting it like
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: that could work, especially if you keep it water. You
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: can also um try propagating it using a pretty ingenious
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: little method of um taking a clump, a whole bunch
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: of moss um, throwing it in a blender with some
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: buttermilk and then taking that mixture with the paintbrush and
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: painting it wherever you want. Very cool. Yeah, buttermilk it
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: just must be the wonder thing for the moss. Yeah,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: it's like with the packed with nutrients. You also want
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to take care of your moss um as as low
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: maintenance as it seems like. There is some things you
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: have to do, like leaves, twigs, that kind of stuff.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Since it's in a shady area, it's usually subject to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: those things falling on top of it, and then actually
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: will um burn it like acid. There won't be a
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: lot of growth in the area of your moss because
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the leaf is preventing it from doing its thing. Yes,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: you want to clean it off like with your carpet. Yes,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: maybe with a very light broom, very light. Yeah, a
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: leafblower on a low setting, which you hate. Yeah, I
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: just don't like the noise. But in this case it
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: makes sense unless you have a very light broom, or
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you could just pick these things off individually, that's right.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: If it's got weeds, you don't want to yank the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: weeds out because that can yank up moss. You don't
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: want to do that, so you just want to like
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: snip it with scissors. And it's no wonder. This is
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: popular in Japan because they're always more like tinder and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: carrying with their gardens. Anyone who has the patients for
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: like bondsai and oor gami and things like that, well
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: we'll snip weeds with scissors. You mean, I were in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Kyoto and witnessed the man cutting the grass at a
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: park with scissors. Yeah, my neighbor used to do that
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: in my old house man, but his lam looked awesome.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Oh beat. Yeah, I don't have time for that crap.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: No one has time for that. Um so yeah, keep
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it well fed. As in once a year aside from
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the water, you're gonna want to in mid spring get
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: out your butter milk again, So basically like right now
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: or like last week. Yeah, true, get about a quarter
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: bottom buttermilk, mix it with a couple of gallons of water,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and uh spray, yep, spray it all over and missed
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: your moss. They love missed they do. They drink it
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: up literally, yeah, well they use it capillary action to
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: drink it up, no roots involved. Let's say you want
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to kill moss. Yeah, I thought that this is very interesting.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: In this article, it's like all pro moss and then
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden it takes a really dark turn
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: with the subject heading how to kill moss. Well, some
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: people don't want it, you know, like they don't want
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: ivy taking over their yard. They don't want moss taking
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: over their yards. Although they point out in the article
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it's not going to take over your lawn because it's
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: not going to grow where your lawn would grow. It's
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a lighten up. But if you're one of those people
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: who are prone to slipping things, you may not want
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that on your sidewalk. Um. You definitely don't want moss
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: on your roof. There's a sign that you have a
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: big problem if you have moss on your roof, unless
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: you are doing that on purpose, like a green roof, well,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: then you're not going to have the kind of roof
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that you have to worry about. Exactly. If you have
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a traditional shingled roof and you have moss, you need
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: to do something about it for a couple of reasons. One, Uh,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: it's the presence of moss trapped moisture. Moss is designed
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: to do that if you're in an into intelligent design theory, um,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and that means that it's going to foster things like
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: fungus that will decay the would beneath, meaning you'll have
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: a hole in your roof. Yea at some point. Um.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: The rhizomes, right, rhizoids, What is wrong with me? I
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: don't know. The rhizoids also like to get in between
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: shingles and loosen them, that's right. And what else? Uh? Well,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I mean you don't want it on your roof, and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: so one thing you can do to kill it is
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: use pesticides and chemicals. Not pesticide, I guess it would
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: be abide. Yeah, they say pesticide in here. That wouldn't
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: be right now. It's a herbicide, um like round up sure,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: which if you're into spring that kind of junk on
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: your lawn, feel free. I advise not to. But that's
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: just how I play in my yard. What so you
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: don't use scissors, but you don't use pesticides. Huh huh Um,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: you just kicked back and you're like, grow baby. No,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I take care of things, but I just don't like
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I just don't like spring chemicals all the way. What
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: do you use as herbicides and pesticides white vinegar? Mm
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: hm yeah, like as a spray for what does that
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: work for? Anything? Like pesticide and herbicide or oh I
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: don't know about pesticide, but herbicide, like it'll kill weeds
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: and really that's interesting. Uh yeah, put it in the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Hudson sprayer and um or just live with it. Yeah.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I guess it depends on the weed for sure. But
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: if you have animals, you don't want to be spraying
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: your yard with chemicals. Even though they say like once
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: it drives, it's fine, I don't buy it. I don't
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: buy that either. Um. But if you do want to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: get rid of it, um, they say the best way
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to get rid of it naturally is to you know,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: make it a not moss friendly environment, so like cut
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: back some some shade cover, maybe make it sunnier. That
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: will help get rid of the moss. Yeah, just make
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: it so it wouldn't want to live there if even
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: if it could, yeah, or scrape it off if it's
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: like on a sidewalk or something that could really or
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: so it may come back. Don't be surprised. But yeah,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: just a flat shovel or a hoe will take care
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of moss usually too. That's right. Say yeah I didn't,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't know about this strip up on your roof,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: and it'll keep mosses away. Hate that stuff, that's right. Um.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: And then the last moss fact of the podcast, if
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: you're ever lost in the woods, you need to get
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: your bearings. Start looking around and see what side of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the trees and um, well, pretty much an upright growing tree,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: what side moss is growing on? And you probably have
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: found something like north, because moss is going to grow
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: on the side that gets the least exposure to sunlight,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: which would be north. So we just follow that and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you will end up in Canada every time, even if
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you start out in Australia. Hey Australia. All right, well
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: that's moss. Huh, you got anything else. I'm gonna grow
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: a little moss gard in my front yard, are you
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: going to? Yeah? Well I was gonna zero escape it anyway,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: so they might as well get some moss. Go on.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I wrote an article on that deer escaping. Yeah, but
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the problem is is this isn't zero escaping because that's
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: dry landscaping. This requires water, but it's still be pretty
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: low maintenance. Yeah, in my front yard doesn't get very
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: much sun. Like I failed miserably at trying to grow grass.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna like mulch and moss and I put
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: plants and stuff. I'd like to see that. Yeah, one day. Um,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: if you want to know more about moss, including seeing
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: some very pretty pictures of moss um and to get
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: to the bottom of the what Chuck and I decided
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: was an in apt analogy between photosynthesis and cookie baking. Um,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you can type in moss in the search bart how
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and noll bring this up and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you will be very happy. And you should also be
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: happy because I said search bars means it's time for
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a listener. Mayal Josh, I'm gonna call this the nicest
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: irishman on Earth. Wow, this guy was super nice. Uh, Josh,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Chuck and Jerry. My name is John Keating and I'm
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: writing from Dublin, Ireland. I've been a reasonably long time listener.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I started listening to the show over a year ago
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: when I started studying for my leaving cert the Irish
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: University Intrigue exams. On a number of occasions during my
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: exams I was able to recall a topic you guys
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: covered during the series, especially in English in history. Due
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: to this, I feel I owe you a great deal
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of thanks. As I was accepted to the College of
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: better known as Trinity College and it's go Thunderbolts in
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: case you're curious. During the year in Trinity, it was
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: announced that a fraternity is to be established within the college.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: In Ireland as well as in the UK, society and
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: clubs take up the role of frats that frats have
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: in the US. However, one exception is normally these clubs
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: societies do not have a particular house associated with them
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: like we do here. Uh. This house concept is something
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I'll have to deal with the near future, as I
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: shall be staying in the Beta Theta Pie branch of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the University of Toronto on in the city in search
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: of work this summer. On this side of the Atlantic,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the frat concept is mainly centered around their depiction in
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: such movies as Animal House or how the Winklevoss twins
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: were portrayed in the social networks. Did you see those
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: guys enter in a commercial for like pastachios? I did.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: It's awful. Hey man, they're gonna make that dollar some way. Huh. Yeah,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the multimillion dollar payout wasn't enough. Yeah. Um, they were
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: wealthy already. Yeah, exactly. They seemed like nice enough guy. Oh,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: they seem like great guys, um and such. We see
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: them as being an alcohol fuelled rich boys club. Yes,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: except for the College of Pharmacies fraternity. What are they like,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: It's a pill fueled club. Um. I know that both
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: of you weren't associated with a rat when you were
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: in college, so maybe I'm right on the button there. Also,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I'm curious as to why the idea hasn't successfully been
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: exported to Ireland. In the UK and further afield, and
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: what exactly is the association with the Greek alphabet and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: why did they develop in the US in the first place.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: So he wants us to do a podcast. Oh, I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: thought he wanted us to answer now, as this email
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: has already exceeded the limit I felt it would, so
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: I shall end it on this note. I just want
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: to further emphasize my gratitude and respect I have for
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the s Y s K team and all the individuals
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: involved in how stuff works. Here's hoping for a successful
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: venture on the TV. Best of luck and slam must
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: be an irish thing. S L a M. I never
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: heard of that. Is it like an acronym for something
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: or No, it just says best of luck in slam,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: So we'll probably hear about that. And that is from
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: John Keating. Thank you John. That is very nice of you.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: That was a very nice email, wasn't it. Do you
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: want to do frets? Yeah? I think we should at point, well,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I guess we have to explain everything. If we did Moss,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: we have to do frats, right, Um, let's see what
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: should we call for, Chuck. I don't believe anybody could
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: possibly have a Moss story, which makes me want to
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: hear one. Well, that means people go, oh boy, you
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: didn't think you'd get a moss story listen to this, Okay,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: so we might as well ask for it. I once
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: laid so still for a year I had moss growing
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: on my side. That'd be pretty cool. That would be cool.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And then there's the tree man, who I think some
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: people call the moss Man. I don't think I know him.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Oh you do. He there's a video on how stuff
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: works with this man who has like some sort of
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: HPV and like he's growing like bark like skin. Yeah,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: I've seen that. Yeah, I think he's called a tree man.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Though it's not the moss Man, is it. I don't know.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: It's sad. So we've already heard about that guy. Don't
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: send us any links to that video seeing it. But
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: if you do have an interesting moss story, we want
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: to hear it. Not only that, if it's interesting enough,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: we'll promote it on the show. The listener mail. You
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: can tweet at least the first hundred and forty characters
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: of your moss story to us that s y SK podcast.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: You can post a bunch of it on Facebook at
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: facebook dot com slash stuff You Should Know, or you
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: can send us an email to Stuff podcast at how
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Stuff You Should Know is a
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.