Look deeply enough into the personal lives of other life forms and you’re likely to come away amazed, bitten, or both.
I’ve been captivated—or who knows, maybe the word I want is captured—by the aliens of Tiny World, otherwise known as my accidental liverwort garden.
It had been awhile since my last visit to the liverworts, and it was good to see that they came through the winter in fine shape.
Tiny World is crammed with marvels. This moss could be carved from pale jade.
Spore capsules balance on fragile red stalks.
I was busily taking their picture when something stung me. Huh. There was a bit of wood chip stuck to my arm. Wait, wait – the wood chip was moving! It was biting me! I flung it back into the liverworts and took its picture, the little tortfeasor. I can’t even make out which end is the business end, but if it ever bites me again I’m going to feed it to the garter snakes.
There is wonderful news for those of us who are curious about the world and would like a reliable place to go learn a bit, from a layperson’s perspective, about this plant and that animal and the stinging woodchip over there. Plans are afoot to build an Encyclopedia of Life with a Web page for every one of the planet’s 1.8 million known species. Best of all, the project launches later this month at the Field Museum in Chicago with an international gathering of liverwort specialists!
I could be tempted to go to Chicago, just to see wonderful images of bryophytes made through microscopes. However, the storage space in my brain is already overflowing and I am going to restrict myself to one obsession at a time. This summer belongs to the Civil War veterans. Unless one of them turns out to have been a liverwort fancier, in which case all bets are off.
Torch Lake Views 
Reggie
May 5, 2010
What an unusual series of photos – I have never heard of Liverworts before, so thank you for enlightening us.
As for that “woodchip” creature, I would’ve fed it to the garter snake immediately. No mercy!
That’s kind of how I feel about the mosquitoes who disturb my sleep every night – even though it’s cold and wet and wintery outside and we shouldn’t be having mozzies in this weather!
Gerry
May 5, 2010
“Mozzies.” I like it. Not them, you understand, just the name.
P.j. grath
May 5, 2010
THE ELFIN WORLD OF MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS OF MICHIGAN–a highly specialized book, way more specific than I’ll ever get. These photos are marvelous.
Gerry
May 5, 2010
Isn’t that just a wonderful title though? Doesn’t it make you want to go out in the woods and make fairy houses out of bits of birchbark and moss?
Absent a Civil War connection I am not going to allow myself to become deeply absorbed in the liverworts, but I’d go to a certain amount of trouble to see some especially interesting ones, and I’d go to quite a lot of trouble to see a photo exhibit about them. I forget what you call the kind of camera the Serious Students of Bryophytes submit grant proposals to buy, but they make some amazing images. I was tickled with some I made last year, right up until I saw what real ones look like. Ah well. Thank you for admiring these.
Carsten
May 5, 2010
You are right Gerry. These liverworts are admirable. I had to look them up in Wikipedia. Interesting family of species. The world is full of wonderful life. Small and large – all great. Perhaps excluding biting woodchips 🙂
I think it is time to mount the macro lens and go into details…..
Gerry
May 5, 2010
I confess I have been thinking about buying a slightly more adventurous camera. It would be a lot of fun to have more options–assuming I could manage to learn how to use them! It is not, alas, a Top Ten Item in this month’s budget at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop. (The first three items, as you might imagine, are Kibble, Excellent Treats, and The Mortgage Payment. In that order. We have our priorities.)
Cindy Lou
May 6, 2010
I’m not sure you need a new camera, Gerry – these upclose and personal liverwort photos are fantastic! Sorry you got bit though….bad, bad bugs!
Gerry
May 6, 2010
You are too kind, Cindy Lou. Believe me, there are lenses that would show us amaaaaaazing things in the liverwort garden. However, I’m having a lot of fun just seeing what I see through the little point ‘n’ shoot! Glad you are too.
flandrumhill
May 7, 2010
Gerry, these photos belong on a faerie real estate site 😉 They are awesome. From big to tiny, we sure do live in an amazing world.
Gerry
May 7, 2010
Oh, thank you! That’s an idea, actually. Maybe we should do a faerie real estate blog. Enchanted miniature landscapes abound in the drumlins and, I’m guessing, in the Salt Marsh, too!