A velvet winter jacket

I'd never noticed this particular tree before, despite it being on my regular running route. I must have passed it dozens of times and had never given it a second glance. It wasn't until one gloomy winters day that it caught my eye; the sky was steel grey, the pavements drab and everything was colourless. Colourless except for one tall looming trunk, covered in a dazzling green moss. A jazzy velvet jacket that couldn't go unnoticed.

To this day I haven't been able to identify the species of this tree (I'm eagerly awaiting some leaves), or the sprawling bryophytes (I have a hand lens & guide but little experience), but I DID take a tiny sample of moss to look at underneath a microscope. I'm not a microbiologist, but last year my housemate showed me how to use hers. We set it up on our kitchen counter and I quickly proceeded to gather tiny samples of moss from across the city. The tiny world that opened up under the lens was incredible and once I'd seen what was living in these living velvet jackets, I couldn't unsee it. A whole community of microorganisms zipping around, foraging, predating, dancing, romancing n prancing. In some samples, teeny tiny tardigrades (also known as mossy pigs or water bears) could be seen scrabbling about with their snout like mouths and stumpy legs. These tiny organisms are amongst the most resilient on earth - they can survive extreme desiccation, UV exposure and even the conditions of outer space. In the moss of this particular #timeless #vogue mossy tree jacket I found what appeared to be a dormant tardigrade. The ability to lie dormant is how they remain so resilient to extreme environments - some tardigrades have been revived from desiccated moss after TWENTY YEARS!

Left: a very bad photo from my phone of a dormant tardigrade. Right: an illustration of a tardigrade by Rebekah Smith

Trees are critical habitat to so many species, many of which we would never see with the naked eye. I love thinking about the real-world drama happening on every trunk around the city - the tiny microbes going about their business in the lichens, mosses and liverworts. Do you have any lovely jacket clad trees near you? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below. Are they covered in velvet moss or encrusted lichen? Full length attire, wispy embellishment or crusty appliqué? There are so many worthy of a high-end fashion (tree) runway and they are probably TEAMING with life. So next time you're walking down a grey dreary street on a gloomy day, I hope you'll spare a thought for those beautifully embellished tree trunks and the tiny worlds living within.