Wandering down Piney Woods Church Road late this afternoon, I passed a driveway all aglow with moss sporophytes, with their globe-like capsules perched atop stalks, called seta, reaching high above the leafy gametophytes. (That sentence, I realize, begs a lesson in the moss life cycle, but I will instead refer curious readers here.) The yellow-green of this sporophyte carpet betokens the impending arrival of spring (although not before another cold spell visits the region this Wednesday).
Yet another of this year’s mostly cloudy and chilly afternoons found me along Piney Woods Church Road, scrambling for an image to share for today. I explored a few new possibilities that might lead to photographs, including an almost-Southwestern miniature erosion landscape with lichens. But for the most part, the muse eluded me. Fortunately, I had begun my outing — like so many before this one — taking a few photographs of a mossy spot along the wooded part of the road, looking back toward the junction with Rico Road. I tried to investigate what species of moss this is, but I turned up lots of photographs of Spanish Moss and Elisabeth Moss instead. And I learned from a listserv on bryophytes (mosses and their kin) that a field guide to Georgia mosses is well overdue (if anyone out there is interested in a topic for their next book). Short of a name for this moss, I can at least identify the stalks scattered among the green leaves as sporophytes, and the capsules atop the stalks (containing the spores for the next gametophyte generation) as sporangia. The complete life cycle of mosses is depicted here.
By the time I set out on a late afternoon saunter to Piney Woods Church Road, the leaden skies had given way to a fine mist — not quite fog, and not quite a drizzle, but approaching what Thoreau called a “mizzling” rain. It was certainly not a day for sunset opportunities. Indeed, it was one of those days that I knew, sooner or later, would happen. Throughout most of the walk, I was accompanied by a small voice in my head, telling me that I was running out of photograph opportunities, and how silly I must be for thinking that this short gravel road outside Atlanta would somehow yield a trove of images and experiences. I persevered nonetheless, dutifully photographing a rock with lichens and mosses (not in sharp focus) and a single red greenbriar leaf against a background of tan-brown fallen leaves from last autumn. I photograph both of these every day now; be watching for when they appear in this blog. I was tempted to turn back early, satisfied with either the rock or the leaf, but I continued to where Piney Woods Church Road meets Hutcheson Ferry Road. Standing in a ditch beside the intersection, I took this photograph of moss with clinging water droplets, using my +4 macro lens. I am reminded, for some reason, of a rolling Irish landscape. Perhaps because it seems always to be raining in Ireland…..
