Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

On a Saturday morning, Kimmerer looks at some specimens of Dicranum mosses while she listens to an NPR show, The Satellite Sisters. The show consists of casual conversation between five sisters who are widely dispersed geographically. On this particular episode, the sisters are talking about the vulnerable feeling of having a new haircut. Kimmerer laughs, thinking that the various Dicranum species are like sisters from widely dispersed places and that they look a lot like different hairstyles. Adaptive radiation has created Dicranum mosses suited to a wide variety of habitats. Kimmer points out that the process of adaptive radiation is like the competition for resources between siblings in the same family: when each sibling develops their own preferences, scarcity is less of an issue. As a result of their speciation, each Dicranum has distinctive characteristics and habits, much like the sisters in a human family.

As Kimmerer catalogs the Dicranum mosses, the Satellite Sisters begin discussing their relationships with men. Kimmerer notes that because the low sperm motility in mosses means that sexual reproduction has a low success rate, some species have adapted to become bisexual, fertilizing their own offspring. This inbreeding creates another set of problems.