Let us take a step into a miniature world…

”He that plants trees, loves others besides himself.”

Bryophytes are, without question, the best plants. They are the coolest freaking tiny things ever! They include mosses, liverworts and hornworts. You have probably seen them but are probably like “Why would anyone like those?” I’d be really impressed if you noticed a variety in species in mosses if you ever go out hiking!

I got into bryophytes by taking a general biology class freshman year that all the biology majors had to take. One of the units was over plants and the course was team-taught, meaning that professors of that field taught that section. A microbiologist taught microbiology, a botanist taught botany, a population ecologist taught population biology, etc. I was initially in school for pre-med. I was going into this thinking I was going to hate plants – BUT I LOVED THEM. I went to this professor’s office hours and I was like “I LOVE BRYOS” and she was like “yo that’s cool – do you want a liverwort?” I was like “Hell YES!” So I had that liverwort for a year and a half until it died 😦 I went back to her office hours the fall semester of my sophomore year and I was like “Hey I love bryos still and your liverwort changed my life and look at my moss!” And she was like “OMG join my lab?” And I was like “F*** YEAH!” So I joined her lab (the only person in her lab) and I’ve been there ever since. She changed my life. I can not imagine my life without bryophytes.

Subscribe and stay up to date with my research! If you join my newsletter, you can get updates about what’s been going on in my research as well as gardening tips and tricks to go with the season!