
On the Tibetan Plateau, north of the Himalayan giants, a rare plant which bore witness to the Jurassic period clings to icy granite cliffs. On this roof of the planet, the green shoots of this plant remain close to the ground and rarely exceed the thickness of a finger, while its leaves are minuscule. Its bright, vivid green has been observed by only a handful of humans. Its common name in Japanese, nanjamonja-goke, aptly conveys the plant’s unusual resilience: “impossible moss.”
Takakia moss is the oldest known living genus of land plants. It is probably 390 million years old — older than the supercontinent Pangea, which began to break up 200 million years ago to form the continents as we know them today. While Takakia is particularly ancient, mosses (“bryophytes”) are among the oldest plants on earth. Their resilience, adaptability, and evolutionary capacity are quite simply unique, enabling them to thrive almost anywhere, from the driest deserts to lush forests, from windswept Antarctic knolls to mountaintops. Continue reading Takakia #1-3 (English edition)








