The Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society is hosting Moss Talk on Dec.12 at Manson’s Hall.

This is a sister event to the Moss Walk, which took place in Kw’as Park on Nov. 13. The presenter for both events is Dan Tucker, an ecologist with a healthy self-admitted obsession with bryophytes, which are a group of plants composed of mosses, hornworts and liverworts. He’s also well-versed in lichens, which are a symbiotic partnership between a fungi and an alga.

Lophocolea sp. liverwort growing on rotting log on Cortes island. Photo courtesy of Dan Tucker.

“Mosses, Liverworts and Lichens are the botanical underdogs in the tree of life and are often neglected due to their cryptic nature and taxonomic difficulty. Despite their small size and challenges, these plants and fungi thrive on Cortes Island but are relatively understudied in comparison to other islands in the Salish Sea," the event page reads.

Tucker is working hard to change this statistic.

The talk on Sunday will include an overview of these fascinating life forms and the types found in the local ecosystems. Tucker will also give an introduction to iNaturalist, an app that allows the public to engage in citizen science as it is “an effective tool to enhance awareness of biodiversity, address gaps in floristic data, and monitor rare plant populations.”

The talk on Dec.12 begins at 1 p.m.

Sphagnum russowii found growing in a bog on Cortes Island. Photo courtesy of Dan Tucker.

Tune into the conversation with Dan Tucker below: