The semi-decomposed plant, excavated from bogs, is a first rate soil conditioner and is also used in seed and potting composts[172]. However, there are other ways you can use sphagnum moss: Tip #1: Use it for hanging baskets. Sphagnum moss was one that was used right up until WWII, which had been used for centuries before. In the case of Angola, in-depth taxonomic studies on Aloe virtually ceased in the 1970s. ---Medicinal Action and Uses---Preparations of calcined peat have long been regarded as effective and cheap germicides, and as a valuable aid to sanitation; peat water possesses astringent and antiseptic properties, and the air in proximity to tracts of peat moss is invariably salubrious, owing probably to the absorption of hydrogen and the exhalation of oxygen by the mosses. In the dry state, sphagnum mosses can absorb water about 20 times its own weight, which is 4 times greater than the capacity of absorbent cotton. Live sphagnum is a good alternative for them. You can use a nice layer of moss to cover your shelter and it will keep you dry. However, for some African countries their alooid floras remain little known. composition of Sphagnum communities permits us to use subfossil Sphagnum and other moss assemblages to identify past climates (E. A. Romanova 1965; J. The diuretic action of Polytrichum moss, known in seventeenth century Europe and independently used in traditional Chinese and Guatemalan medicine, was rediscovered in the nineteenth and early twentieth century (Drobnik and Stebel 2015), when Sphagnum moss was used for dressing wounds in 1882, and subsequently used in World War 1 simply as an absorbent. Sphagnum moss (Sphagnum species) has been used for thousands of years. Herbal Remedies and Medicinal Uses of Moss: The Ground Moss is said to be good to break the stone, and to expel it by urine, boiled in wine and drank. For use in field-hospitals, etc., the moss is packed in compressed cakes cut to a certain size, which are more conveniently packed for sending abroad than the soft dressings, these small slabs being also placed, each in a muslin bag, very much too large for the size of the dry cake put in them, for obvious reasons. Sphagnum fuscum is brown to greenish brown in color with slender brown stems. It belongs to the class Sphagnopsida and order Sphagnales and is the only member of the family Sphagnaceae. Sphagnum moss naturally grows in different locations, and most gardeners use them for container gardening, such as hanging baskets, houseplants, and orchids. The moss itself must not be torn or broken into short pieces. A bonus benefit to using moss as part of your structure is that if you really need to, you can use it to capture clean drinking water! Herbal Remedies and Medicinal Uses of Moss: The Ground Moss is said to be good to break the stone, and … Peat moss is a great seed starting medium. GENERAL I ARTICLE Uses of Bryophytes ... Gardeners use Sphagnum in air layering, a method of propagating plants. havocdb Well-Known Member. Old Man’s Beard could perhaps be used in combination with balsam fir sap (which is a topical pain killer and adhesive) to secure the lichen to the wound, keep it clean, safe from infection, and reduce pain. It is then lightly packed in bags of butter-muslin, which are sterilized before being placed on the wound. Sphagnum only thrives in clean water and soil; it dislikes manure of any kind. On the outbreak of the late war a still wider economic use was found for this moss, as a dressing of wounds, and an interesting industry sprang up for war-workers living where this moss grows, mainly in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Devon, much having also been collected from the Yorkshire moors, the Lake District and the Wye Valley. Sphagnum moss, how to prepare a medicinal plant. Those who do not know will not it will not survive.. Sphagnum moss can be used in hanging planter baskets for flowers. If you have any other survival uses of moss, please share them with us in the comments section below! Throughout history its uses have ranged from medicinal to clothing to food. Since it’s acidic, bacteria doesn’t tend to grow in it. Fortunately the supply is practically an unlimited one; indeed, if the demand grew considerably, the artificial cultivation of Sphagnum for surgical purposes would be worth while. David E. Allen. In another example, presence of such drought-tolerant species as Tortella flavovirens in subfossils indicates past dry climatic conditions in some areas of the Netherlands (H. Nichols 1969; J. Wiegers and B. There IS one way that may help you find direction using moss, though. Irish moss is used for its mucilaginous and nutritional qualities. In World War I, it was even used as sponges during surgeries when sponges and bandages that were typically used were scarce, Epstein said. Description. Although this particular use of the moss is generally looked upon as an innovation, we owe the introduction of Sphagnum Moss as a modern surgical dressing to Germany, where its value for this purpose was quite accidentally discovered in the early eighties. It comes from a wetland. So do I clean it first? Due to its low thermal conductivity, sphagnum is used in the construction business as an insulating material. They are the remains of the dead materials of wild mosses that have been piled up in a peat bog over a thousand years. So how, exactly, should you use peat moss, now that you know about the benefits and downsides of sphagnum peat moss? Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as "peat moss" though they are different as peat moss has a more acidic pH level.Accumulations of Sphagnum can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species. In gathering Sphagnum most people use their hands, though some employ a rake. This Moss is easily propagated, as the stems and so-called leaves can be chopped up into fine particles and every morsel will grow and form a tassel-like head. If you’ve ever been in the Scouts or read old country lore, you’ve most likely heard that if you’re lost, look for moss because it grows on the north side of trees. The peat moss species Sphagnum teres is very popular to treat various eye diseases in China. Where a moor produces large patches of coherent Sphagnum - cushions - the following method has been employed. Sphagnum Moss Is a Source of Drinking Water. The use of peat moss as dressings was developed in the 1880's. ---Peat Tar---In connexion with the uses of Spaghnum Moss as a dressing for wounds, mention should be made of the Tar extracted from the Peat on which the Moss isusually found growing. Remember – moss likes moisture. They grow to be about 3-8 centimeters long. Synonym(s): muskeag moss, peat moss moss Any low-growing green plant of the class Musci. Sphagnum moss is most notable and well-known use is as a wound dressing. For thirty years, Sphagnum Moss had been used as a surgical dressing in Germany. GENERAL I ARTICLE Uses of Bryophytes ... mosses (Sphagnum) and liverworts provide suitable substrates for the biological fixation of nitrogen in association with cyanobacteria. Sometimes, the moss is mixed in with the soil, for hanging baskets and in the garden, to aerate the soil and/or add acidity. The moss is dried thoroughly before use. The plant derived natural products occupy an important place in the area of cancer chemotherapy because of minimal side effects. You can just rip it off a tree and squeeze the water into your mouth. The Government bought up tons of the bulbs, which were sent out to the front; the raw juice expressed, diluted with water, was put on swabs of sterilized Sphagnum Moss and applied to wounds. Sphagnum Moss was also used during the War in conjunction with Garlic, one of the best antiseptics. You can use sphagnum moss for hanging planters for flowers and other plants. They grow together to form large clumps. It’s found in most of the US in open, dry areas. Therefore instead of stones, it is a common practice to use peat moss as a bottom layer of hanging pots. Many types of moss, including sphagnum moss, are great for dressing a wound. Peat moss is useful as an additive in potting mixes, as a soil amendment, and in your vegetable garden. Sphagnum or peat moss, with its tiny leaves, absorbs a lot of liquid making it an ideal, natural wound dressing, as well as treatment for rashes. In recent years, the light-brown layer of semi-decayed Sphagnum Moss deposits that lies above the actual peat on bogs and moors, has been largely employed as valuable stable litter in the place of straw, under the name of Moss Litter, entirely on account of its great absorptive powers. Peat Moss or Sphagnum Moss Uses: 1. Though the pale-green species is the most common, there are several others, large and small, varying in colour from the very light green (never dark green) to yellow, and all shades of pink to deep red and brown. Change the moss out each time you clean the wound. Where this treatment was adopted there were no specific complications, and thousands of lives were thus saved. Even if they pass by it and see the structure, if it’s an old building such as a shed that looks rickety and as if nobody’s been in it forever, they’ll be more likely to pass it by than if the place looks lived in or used. A MODERN HERBAL Home Page, © Copyright Protected 1995-2020 Botanical.com. It was traditionally used as a bandage due to these properties. Sphagnum moss is simple to use and beneficial for potted plants as a liner, as it acts like a sponge absorbing and retaining moisture while keeping its natural acidity. Soak the sphagnum moss for 30 minutes. I just had to try, the first step is to try rooting in sphagnum moss, step 2 is to try growing in only moss. This does not, however, appear likely to lead to any important industry, but absorptive material has been produced from white Sphagnum Moss and Wood Pulp. Sphagnum moss grows on wet acid soils. Current and past uses. Sphagnum moss is a natural antibacterial, and can be used as a natural cleansing agent for wounds. Great for strep throat, pneumonia and urinary infections. When collecting moss just neatly cut with a … While still damp, all clumps should be separated out, as the moss, whether picked or not, must be sent to the workrooms in a loose state. The Tree Moss grows only on trees. The moss is spread out on a table and all other substances, such as grasses, twigs, bits of heather and other plants, and above all, pine-needles, must be carefully removed by hand. All the links below are Affiliate Links, so I do get a small commission for recommending them, with no extra cost to you. A. Janssens 1988). Also if you insulate your house with flammable moss won’t it burn easily? Oregon Evergreen & Willamette Evergreen sell the highest quality Oregon Green Moss (a.k.a. Interesting fact: Up to 80% of the peat moss used in the US comes from Canada. Do more research. As a matter of fact, many survivalists regularly use moss as a water source and I haven’t heard of any that have ever had an issue. If you’ve ever actually tried to determine direction using this method, you probably ended up scratching your head in confusion because there was moss all the way around the tree. The growing plant, with its underlying layers of withered stems and leaves, is collected, picked clean from other plants, pineneedles, etc., and dried. Even the best prepared cottonwool lacks the power to retain discharges possessed by Sphagnum. If you're low on Sphagnum Moss, check out a few brands that can be found on Amazon. Because of its absorptive properties, it makes an excellent wound dressing and has been widely employed for this purpose in the past. The moss itself has antimicrobial properties, and was therefore used as an effective filler for wounds to prevent infection. We’ve barely scraped the surface in this article, especially when addressing the medical and edible benefits of moss, but at least now you get the gist of it. Large cushions of the moss are taken out and placed on a drier area near by - a couple of workers can put out about a hundred of these in an hour. The manufacture of spinning material out of peat-fibre has been attempted in Sweden, and experiments have advanced so far that cloth as well as clothing has been made out of peat fibre mixed with other textile materials. Sphagnum Moss was also used during the War in conjunction with Garlic, one of the best antiseptics. Medicinal bryophytes and their morphological features and ethnic uses were examined and documented. As a matter of fact, there are many stories of wilderness people who actually use moss to roof their houses. Sphagnum moss has also been used for centuries as a dressing for wounds, including through World War I. Perhaps the most common use for sphagnum peat moss is as a soil amendment. It has also been used by some primitive people as a form of external menstrual protection. We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we don't store personal details. medicinal plants. Common Name Index Day 1. Sphagnum moss is simple to use and beneficial for potted plants as a liner, as it acts like a sponge absorbing and retaining moisture while keeping its natural acidity. Sphagnum Moss) packs in 25 lb bales, at 25 bales per pallet; 10lb, 5lb, and 2lb bales; as well as in 1lb polybags! A pad of Sphagnum Moss absorbs the discharge in lateral directions, as well as immediately above the wound, and holds it until fully saturated in all parts of the dressing before allowing any to escape. Those same antibacterial and water absorption qualities make it helpful for … Have You Been Smoking It Too , I May Ask ? Search for articles by this author. The even absorption of the moss is one of its chief virtues, for the patient is saved a good deal of disturbance, since the dressing does not require to be changed so frequently. Use of Sphagnum Moss as Dressing for Wounds However, due to medical advancements it’s no longer used today – but, you never know, it … Well of course it is, especially in survival situations. After the advent of antibiotic powder, the moss pads fell out of fashion. Canadian peatlands formed over 10,000 years ago in very moist and poorly drained low spots such as old river beds, lakes or ponds. Wringing or squeezing the moss does not harm it for surgical purposes, though it must not be allowed to dry in closely pressed pieces, because it tears when being opened up again. These cyanobacteria seem to behave symbioti­ cally in these plants. Sphagnum moss also makes a good packing material for protecting delicate items in transit, it can be used as a cotton wool substitute and as a potting material for many species of orchid. Sphagnum moss and peat has been used for centuries for many different things such as medicines, wound dressing, in gardening, as fuel and as bedding for animals. Well yes it is but it likes to hold on to its water. But is it good for anything? When used with orchids, sphagnum moss can be a life savior, or the doom of an orchid. Sphagnum in Scotland: the moss is mostly found in peat bogs, forests and moist tundra. Every part of the moss is permeated with minute tubes and spaces, resulting in a system of delicate capillary tubes, having the effect of a very fine sponge. Medicine from moss: Bioreactor technique may offer hope to people with age-related blindness Date: July 23, 2010 Source: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg How to use peat moss in your garden depends on what you plan to use it for. The moss should be gathered as cleanly as possible, squeezed dry and carried home in sacks. After the glaciers melted, the water runoff filled in these areas. There was a munition factory in Scotland, where much of the moss was sublimated and part of it compressed by hydraulic power into these cakes. N Mrgth / shutterstock. Use sphagnum moss without the peat moss, and your orchid will thank you. There are over 12,000 varieties and they all have uses. Because of the high acidity and the antibacterial properties of sphagnum moss, it can be included in your filtration system to help filter your water. Sphagnum Moss. In favourable weather a few days' sun and wind will dry these thoroughly, as the cushions are too bulky to be scattered by the wind. To stock up on medicinal raw materials, you should follow simple rules. In fact, during World War I, the Germans used sphagnum moss to make bandages that proved vastly superior to the cotton pads available at that time. Peat moss develops its richness in the absence of air, and when put to use it naturally starts decomposing completely, and when it does it releases the nutrients but makes it especially useless for carnivorous plants. There are no flowers but it does have bright red reproductive parts that look a bit like flowers from a distance. Because sphagnum moss is sterile and has some antibacterial qualities, it has a long history of medical uses. One of the best things about this is that, since moss has an interconnected, shallow root system, you can cut it in large chunks that make it easy to transport and cover your shelter quickly. In spite of this, there are ways to use peat moss for longer periods. On my wilderness survival trip it was dead and dried and we called it witches hair, used it as toilet paper. In the case of sphagnum moss, you can quite literally wring it out and drink the water that you get from it. You Can Use Sphagnum Moss to Filter Water. Some Moss Is Edible This type of moss is also good for soothing and healing rashes. The survival uses for moss are many and varied. Moss is damp, isn’t it? Iceland moss An edible lichen, Cetraria islandica. It is individually less robust than other peat mosses, especially when clumped into compact hummocks.The moss will form thread-like branches interwoven within hummocks. Oak moss is found in the mountainous regions of the US and grows, as the name suggests, on oak trees. Sphagnum moss also makes a good packing material for protecting delicate items in transit, it can be used as a cotton wool substitute and as a potting material for many species of orchid. Medicinal use of Sphagnum Moss: The whole fresh plant is antiseptic. Johannes Enroth (Bryonet 28 January 2009) visited the Yucatan, Mexico, and discovered mosses in use there. The genus Sphagnum, consisting of around 250 species, is one of the most commonly-used mosses in commercial industry. Sphagnum Peat Moss? (2009) , Ayres (2013) , … Just apply is as a bandage and change as it dries out. The Moss often attracts attention by its display of beautiful shades of colour, such patches being avoided by wary persons, who do not wish to get their feet wet. This is because moss grows best where it’s moist and (preferably) shady most of the day. As an alternative medicine ingredient, Spanish moss use has not been approved for any specific medical treatment by the Food and Drug Administration. The very hydraulic press which one hour was moulding shell bases, was in the next devoting its energy to compressing the healing cakes of Sphagnum Moss. How Peat Moss works in an Aquarium Check that and more out at http://www.willametteevergreen.com/wholesale-oregon-green-moss-sphagnum. This moss is acidic, so no bacteria grows on it, which means it’s safe to drink directly from it without boiling. are used in surgical dressing because of better and faster absorption. This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia. ---Description---Sphagnum is easily distinguished from other mosses by its habit ofgrowth, its soft thick fullness (each head resembling a full and elaborate bloom of edelweiss), and its vividly pale-green colour. Soil Amendment. Often called sphagnum peat moss, the plant breaks down over thousands of years when it’s submerged in water. Within 24 hours, these root systems will grow together and you have an instant, waterproof roof. Where this treatment was adopted there were no specific complications, and thousands of lives were thus saved. Today, it's much more commonly found and used for gardening purposes. subscribed! Many materials, including other kinds of moss, are equally soft and light, but none can compare with it in power of absorption, due to its sponge-like structure. Minnesota is home to over 500 species of mosses, liverworts and hornworts, collectively known as bryophytes. In civil hospitals, in times of peace, the deficiencies of cotton-wool are not so much noticed, the majority of wounds being those made by surgeons under ideal conditions, but for a variety of reasons the wounds of our men at the front were of such a suppurating character as to require specially absorbent dressings, and overworked doctors and nurses constantly expressed themselves thankful for a dressing that lasted longer than cotton-wool. In 1939, for example, 10,000 tons of it was raked from trees in Florida and Louisiana. looking for an alternative to RW . It is found in wet and boggy spots, preferably on peat soil, mostly near heather, on all our mountains and moors, in patches small or large, usually in water free from lime, growing so close together that it often forms large cushions or clumps. The moss helps keep the soil warm and holds moisture in, keeping the soil from drying out as quickly. The cells readily absorb water and retain it. 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