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  • Published: 1 October 2021
  • ISBN: 9780141997629
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $22.99

Gathering Moss

A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses




Intriguing and uplifting stories of the world's oldest plants, from the revered botanist and indigenous teacher Robin Wall Kimmerer

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.

In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.

Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

  • Published: 1 October 2021
  • ISBN: 9780141997629
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

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Praise for Gathering Moss

Grounding, calming, and quietly revolutionary.

Robert MacFarlane

I give daily thanks for Robin Wall Kimmerer for being a font of endless knowledge, both mental and spiritual.

Richard Powers

Soulful, accessible... informed by both western science and indigenous teachings alike ... Kimmerer blends, with deep attentiveness and musicality, science and personal insights to tell the overlooked story of the planet's oldest plants

Guardian

Beautiful ... Her scientific training and knowledge of plants from her Potawatomi heritage create a unique lens, teaching us how to look and watch... Reading this has made me stop to wondrously admire any patch of moss I come across.

Quietus

Beneath your feet, barely visible to the eye, is another world: a rainforest in miniature ... Read Kimmerer's book and you're unlikely ever again to waste precious gardening time scraping moss from paving stones.

Rachel Cooke, Observer

Gathering Moss is fantastic and offers an extraordinary point of view on the natural world

Natalie Portman