Spotted a weird moss pattern on a boulder in the Smokies

I was hiking the Alum Cave Trail last weekend and stopped to catch my breath near a big rock face. The whole side of this one boulder, maybe 8 feet tall, was covered in moss but in a really clear pattern. It looked like a map of islands, with darker green patches and lighter green channels between them. A guy walking by said it's probably because water runs down the rock in those same paths every time it rains, so the moss grows thicker where it stays wet. It made me look at every rock differently for the rest of the hike. Has anyone else seen something like that, or know what kind of moss it might be? I wish I'd taken a better picture.

2 comments

2 Comments

mitchell.daniel27d ago

Gotta ask, is a moss pattern on a rock really that deep? It's just water running downhill the same way for a few hundred years. The guy you talked to already gave you the answer. Why do we need to turn every cool thing we see into some big mystery? It's moss, it grows where it's wet. Maybe just enjoy the view and keep walking next time.

veras3426d ago

Actually read a thing once about how moss patterns can show old water flow on rocks, like a map of where it's been wet for ages. It's not just random, it's kinda like the rock's own weather history. So maybe it's not a huge mystery, but it's still a specific record of something. Lets you see time in a weird way.