Anja Murray: Moss is the unsung hero of the biosphere

Mosses rarely die when they dry out, they simply stop growing. As soon as they get access to a good drink of water, they can revive themselves and begin growing again — even after decades

Instead of producing flowers with pollen for reproduction, mosses have simpler structures called sporophytes which produce its reproductive spores. These are the shoots that you can often see if you look closely at moss: capsules held high on a stalk coming up from the clump of green moss

It's easy to admire flowering plants when out and about. Whitethorn grabs our attention right now, in the midst of a profusion of musky sweet-smelling blossom. Hedge banks are brimming with eye-catching wild violets, pretty primroses, and even the tall heads of richly pigmented pink orchids (early purple orchids are also at their peak flowering right now).

But we rarely tune our attention to the tiny forms of mosses. A comprehensive global study published this month has found that mosses contribute far more than previously understood to ecosystems across the world and in particular to soil health and carbon storage.