Diverging to Clover

March 3, 2015August 25, 2015 by Karen Nierlich

Today we are diverging to clover photos. What can I say…

Green Clover | Red Clover

I saw this clover out of the corner of my eye…the hillside stretched above on my left and the sun was streaming through the clover revealing the intense red underside! Perhaps that’s why clover is so intensely green. The red bottom and green top makes it more vibrant.

Like Van Gogh’s brushstrokes of red and green or yellow and blues next to one another for brilliance.

On our trip to Prairie Creek Redwoods S.P. in February fell on a warm, dry winter. The moss was semi-dry and somewhat brown, except near the coast where the fog rolls in. Because of the dryness this bed of clover was the only time I found something where I immediately thought, “This is soooo beautiful. I can’t wait to see this photo.”

Photos taken on the James Irvin Trail on the way from Prairie Creek Redwoods S.P. Headquarters to Fern Canyon.

Abandoned Ski Resort, Japan

February 17, 2015August 20, 2015 by Karen Nierlich

Abandoned Japanese Ski Resort

Photos of abandoned spaces are replent with moss. Visit Faerie Magazine online to see beautiful castles, gardens, bridges, and churches. Once the roof is gone, trees, plants and moss take over.

Here’s something a little more unexpected. An abandoned ski resort in Japan where the tables are now rich beds of moss. I wonder exactly where this is and how the photographer arrived at this spot. Were they hiking and decided to enter the resort? Were they searching for abandoned spaces? Did they have to pass through many dark and creepy passageways to get to this room?

Love abandoned places? See 50 more Abandoned Places

Update: I heard from Mossin’ Annie that this is a real photo, not a photoshop version. Some hikers (not botanists or moss lovers) stumbled upon the moss tables in their quest to visit abandoned places. (See Go Green with Moss on Facebook. Mossin’ Annie is the Moss Chief at Mountain Moss in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina.)

Moss and Lichen by photographer Karen Nierlich captures images from around the Bay Area including Berkeley, Albany, Tilden, Muir Woods and the Dipsea Trail. Available from Lulu.com for $19.99. Click on book cover to access reviews and purchase!

Not Counting Raindrops, Until I See Them

February 6, 2015February 17, 2015 by Karen Nierlich

Pixie Cup Lichen Califonia

I’m not counting any raindrops yet, but the newspaper and meteorologist seem pretty confident we have a big storm arriving tonight and staying through the weekend. I’m keeping a day clear on my calendar so I can visit my mossy Bay Area haunts. Included here are photos I took after the rains in December 2014.

Pixie Cup Lichen Berkeley

The cuppy things are Pixie Cup Lichen. I’d never even seen this lichen before I started this project to photograph moss. One sees things that were unseen before one really starts to look intently! It a major axiom or life lesson. We determine what we see by how we look and what we look for!

Mushrooms California

Getting back to the Pixie Cups. This British Wildflower site by Roger Darlington describes them thus: “Shaped like Shreks’ Ears or miniature golf-tees (podetia), albeit somewhat battered and sand-blasted ones. The sprinkling of light-grey-green pixie dust (squamules) between them is part of the lichen.”

I’ve been hiking around all my life and never seen a pixie cup before this year! Let’s say it’s a perk of my moss project.

While moss and lichen favor a lot of the same moist places, lichen is structurally very different. D-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t is not understating it. Lichen may be the only symbiotic organism….Like moss and liverwort it’s a non-vascular plant, meaning it doesn’t have a system of cells that carry water, which it why it remains small and close to the ground. It gets water and minerals from its surface.

The amazing, weird and different thing about lichen is that it’s made of algae on the inside and fungus on the outside. The algae have chorolphyll which help it make food for the fungus…I’ve oversimplified what is known about the alga/fungus relationship of fungus. If you want to know more about this unique relationship—consult another source:)

Pixie Cups Berkeley

Enjoy the storm!

Moss and Lichen is a collection of Moss images by photographer Karen Nierlich including the streets of Berkeley, Albany, Tilden, Muir Woods and the Dipsea Trail. Available from Lulu.com for $19.99. Click on book cover to access reviews and purchase!

Moss Photos in North Berkeley

February 4, 2014September 13, 2014 by Karen Nierlich

These moss photos might appeal to those who love abstract art like artists Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko and especially Robert Ryman. In me they evoke tender feelings of peace and harmony because of the combination of earthy & messy botanical stuff with the relative straight edges and hardness of the bricks! I also get a kick out of the little dandelion that makes it look like a tiny lawn with a tree.

This spot on Portland Avenue in Berkeley (near my brother’s house) had lots of different bricks as you can see the moss finds a toehold on the older pockmarked bricks not the newer bricks. I Imagine it had to do with the hardness and texture of the bricks.

Moss and Bricks Berkeley

White Brick and Moss Berkeley

Moss Photos Berkeley

Moss Photos in Rainy Berkeley CA

January 27, 2013February 9, 2015 by Karen Nierlich

Lichen fence Berkeley

Got busy with my camera this week the minute the rain cleared because I checked some reports on California weather and learned we have just 2.5 months of winter left. This chartreuse moss photo is actually lichen. It covers a whole fence somewhere along the Arlington. Been by there several times trying to find a way to make this backdrop into an interesting photo. I may be using this image as the book cover. Love it so! But then it’s lichen…so a complication.

My walk took me up Portland Avenue to Colusa and then further up Vicente Ave to one of the “secret” stair paths up there. There are some gardeners there on Vicente who are crazy about succulents. Hats off to you all! I’ve included some of your gems.

Postbox and Succulents Berkeley

Moss and Lichen book by Karen Nierlich.

Sweet Tennessee Moss in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

September 4, 2012August 18, 2015 by Karen Nierlich

My father-in-law’s family and ancestors lived off the land and the forest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They lived in a small log cabin without electricity or running water. Fresh, fresh water ran in creeks and rivers nearby. His family and others were forced to accept payment from the Park Service and move off the land so that the land could be preserved as a park. Frank Abbott grew up on a farm immediately outside the park.

We always head up to Big Rock when we visit my father-in-law. B-I-G Rock is a big rock that overhangs a busy river. There Frank and his brothers and friends played in the summers — jumping off the rock and catching crawdads in the waters below. In Spring, the waters flowing below Big Rock are fridge but it is one amazingly mossy spot. (cont. below)

Moss Great Smoky Mountains — Mossy, Flowery Outcropping in Great Smoky Mountains

Great Smoky Mountains — Jumping off Big Rock

Each year we go up there my husband and others jump off the rock…and…I…watch. I like to think I’m a fairly rugged girl but when it comes to cold water, I’m a total wimp.

This year I wanted to be able to show a photo of myself jumping off the rock to my Facebook friends. (I know, I know, I’m not proud of this.) So I got up there and after 2-3 tries managed to jump off. The water felt like it’d melted off an ice pack mere seconds ago. I seriously felt like I’d get ice burn if I stayed in there. I swam and scrambled out of there as fast as I could. I think you can see how pained I was in the after photo below where you see me on the bank.

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Karen Nierlich is author of Journal of a Moss Enthusiast, Albany, CA. Photographic prints of some images will be available in the future and she is starting to put together a book of moss photos and text.

Mossiest Trees Ever (I Say)

August 11, 2012January 6, 2017 by Karen Nierlich

More moss photos from the Dipsea trail

10 Mossy Tree Trunks, Dipsea Trail Marin California

We found the mossiest trees I’ve ever seen while hiking the Dipsea Trail from Muir Woods to Stinson Beach! You can see them right here—the pose makes me think of rock album covers. You know the ones where the band members are all spaced out and looking cool. I was hopeful that this spot might be mossy all summer, but I’ve already been back and not so. A month later and there is nothing but drier and dry moss.

Mossy Tree Trunks — 3 Mossy Trees Close Up, Dipsea Trail, Marin CA

Happy Moss-ter Day

May 14, 2012August 25, 2015 by Karen Nierlich

Hiked today with my family to celebrate Mother’s Day in Marin from Muir Woods to Stinson Beach on the Dipsea Trail. For those who don’t live in the Bay Area, the Dipsea Trail has a local cult standing due to a competitive running race that takes place there each year. Today as we hiked the trail we were repeatedly passed by runners going from regular to full throttle over the dirt trails.

I ‘m happy because as we approached Stinson Beach the trees became mossier and mossier. The sky and trees started to drip like a light rain. Really it was the condensation from the fog.

It was super mossy. I realized I had been worried about running out of moss to photograph during the summer months. Looks like if I explore Marin near the coast, I’ll find lots of moss to photograph all summer long. Here is one of the many photos I took today.

moss with raindrops — Moss on Dipsea Trail, Marin

mossy trees on Dipsea Trail — Kids, Kelly, Tod on Dipsea Trail between Muir Woods and Stinson

Dave Crockett’s Tavern and a Mossy Roof

May 7, 2012September 13, 2014 by Karen Nierlich

Recently my family and I visited Tennessee to see my father-in-law. There a number of sites we revisit each time we are in Morristown, TN. One of them is a tavern Dave Crockett’s parents owned and he lived in as a boy. He was born in 1786 and from what I read the tavern was build in 1795 (though this structure is actually a reproduction built in the early 1900’s.)

My interest (of course) is to show you this roof covered with buttery dollops of moss, though I’ll include a few photos of the location overall. It’s so ball-like that must be a feature of how this moss grows. Love these moss pom-poms.

Sun Dappled Mossy Glade

April 5, 2012September 13, 2014 by Karen Nierlich

I think these are the kinds of photos I try to avoid taking. No chain link fence or edgy details to play off, but beautiful nature photos. This mossy glade is a mini-park at Oxford and Indian Rock Road in Berkeley in case you want to visit. It’s one block up from Indian Rock.

Bright Yellow Lichen, Moss & Wild Strawberry
Cute Green Mossy Rock
Cute Small Mossy Rocks
Sun Dappled Mossy Rocks

Karen Nierlich Moss Enthusiast — Moss Enthusiast Karen Nierlich

Karen Nierlich is a photographer and avid moss enthusiast in Albany, CA. She’s working on a book of moss photos tentatively titles “Moss in the City.” Subscribe for weekly updates. Or follow her on Twitter at Karen Nierlich.

I Heart Moss

Hiking, Photography, and Mossy Places

Category: Plant Photos