Some of the hottest girls you know in the San Francisco Bay Area are the biggest fans of bryophytes — and it’s their time to shine.
San Francisco, as well as the surrounding Bay Area, has started this calendar year with a healthy amount of rainy weather. The Nicasio Reservoir in Marin County reaching capacity… and overflowing. (In fact, all of Marin County’s reservoirs are currently above 97% filled — a major win for local biodiversity and fire suppression efforts.)
The SF Bay Area is also synonymous with personifying its atmospheric anomalies; thank you, Karl The Fog, for keeping us cool and adding scrollable levity to our days. Moreover: The region is home to a litany of microclimates — localized areas that contain different climates than the larger ones at present, all of which, in this case, originate from the SF Bay Area’s proximity to water and coastal terrains — can create hyperlocal wonderlands truly uniques to those areas.
Can’t complain when the editors send me out in search for moss. Read @ctuan’s story on why you’re seeing it everywhere these days @sfchronicle https://t.co/v1jvxura1W pic.twitter.com/Zb7Sj8TlVU
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) January 28, 2024
Case and point: In many parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s officially moss season — Hot Girl Moss Szn, for the Megan The Stallion affluents among us — as many on social media have pointed out.
“This is the time of year when people see them,” said Jim Shevock, a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco who researches mosses, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “During the summer, they dry out and turn brown. People can walk by them and not even see them. They’re just waiting for that first rain. They can green up in a matter of seconds.”
Unlike much other flora around the San Francisco Bay Area — like, for example, eucalyptus trees, which came here by way of Australian exporters in 1850 when California needed cheep, fast-growing timber —– moss is a non-invasive species to the states, despite its otherwise alien-like appearance.
The presence of moss is not only an environmental indicator that conditions are optimal and healthy, especially for amphibian life, but forests rely on them to sequester moisture; some mosses, like Sphagnums, can hold over twenty times their weight in water; these sponge-like qualities mitigate fire risks, all while helping vegetation weather through dry spells.
When rain does descend on the SF Bay Area, popular hiking areas like Marin County, around Mount Diablo, and in San Francisco sites like the Presidio and Sutro Forest are blanketed by this essential plant. But you don’t need to go far looking for moss mind; odds are, there are bryophytes — mosses, liverworts, and hornworts — right in your backyard, front yard, rooftop garden, or favorite staircase you talk about on a mental health walk.
Just make sure to watch your step. Though moss is, indeed, sponge-like… falling on a bed of them would be a far cry from collapsing into a pile of warm laundry or a group of feather-filled pillows.
Feature Image: Courtesy of Reddit via u/chrong123
