Mosses Bibliography

If you had no circulatory system to carry food and oxygen around your body, you’d be as small as a bug. That’s why mosses are tiny. In plants, the “circulatory system” is called the vascular system, and mosses never evolved such a system. Nevertheless, these miniature forests are well adapted to habitats all over the world.

Note: book cover sizes in the list below are shown relative to each other. The list is organized by primary author. Some out-of-copyright books are available free at the supplied links. Where possible, range maps are taken directly from the books.

	The Book of Forest and Thicket: Trees, Shrubs, and Wildflowers of Eastern North America Author(s): Eastman, John; illustrated by Hansen, Amelia Publisher: Stackpole Books, 1992 View at: Amazon.com Comments: I love these books! (See also The Book of Swamp and Bog and The Book of Field and Roadside.) Learning to identify a plant is one matter, a pleasant challenge to be sure, but one that leaves us with only the most superficial of introductions. What if you could be fully immersed in the world of the plant? Eastman's books describe a relatively small number of common species in rich but not overly technical detail. I feel like a tiny bee might, as I see the insects that frequent the plant, the fungal blights it must tolerate, the birds who favor its fruits, its friends and associates. Amelia Hansen's detailed line drawings focus sometimes on the plant itself, but often on some aspect of the plant's environment. These books aren't really field guides, but they are much more. 212 pages.	Eastern North America
	Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Author(s): Kimmerer, Robin Wall Publisher: Oregon State University Press, 2003 View at: Amazon.com Comments: This isn't a guide book, but it provides a very interesting introduction to mosses, and from a unique perspective. From the cover: "...Drawing on her diverse experience as a scientist, mother, teacher, and writer of Native American Heritage, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world."
	Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast Author(s): Pojar, Jim; MacKinnon, Andy Publisher: Lone Pine, 1994 View at: Amazon.com Comments: Describes 794 species, including trees, shrubs, wildflowers, aquatic plants, grasses, ferns, mosses and lichens. Includes 1100 color photos and 1000 line drawings and silhouettes. While many field guides cover wider regions and larger numbers of species, this provides deeper detail about each species in the more restricted region. If you search for wildflowers only in this region, this may be the only resource you need, and it is an excellent complement to other guides if you need to identify plants from a wider or different area. Includes keys that require moderate, but not advanced, understanding of botanical terminology. 528 pages.	Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska, from the coast to the mountains.
	Mosses, Lichens and Ferns of Northwest North America Author(s): Vitt, Dale H., Marsh, Janet E., & Bovey, Robin B. Publisher: Lone Pine, 1988 View at: Amazon.com Comments: This 296-page guide covers about 370 species of mosses, lichens, liverworts, and ferns that are commonly found in the Pacific northwest. The guide includes range maps, photos, habitat indicators, and dichotomous keys as aids to identification. These plants can be difficult subjects, requiring microscopic examination and/or chemical tests, so there are relatively few guide books available.