Mnium for the first time

It has been a fine spring for bryophytes, and with no sign that the prevailing wet and cool conditions will end any time soon, it will be a fine spring for learning the mosses, which is something I had hoped to do for years. A good part of the reason that I hadn't was the simple fact that no user-friendly field guide was available to the novice, and I didn't know anyone who could serve as a mentor. But last year, Princeton University Press published Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians, a splendid little book by naturalist and St. Lawrence University biology prof Karl McKnight and several colleagues, and the Press was good enough to send me a review copy. Karl McKnight was good enough to talk to me about the book. And I was chomping at the bit to field test it and write about the guide. Then the long-term drought arrived, the mosses shriveled, and I had to postpone my good intentions. But the rains are back, the mosses are vibrant green, and I'm slowly working my way towards a measure of bryological expertise. This charming moss, for example, is most likely a member of the genus Mnium, the thyme mosses, although I really do need to return to its cedar swamp habitat to collect it and examine it under the microscope. Moss identification is tricky and challenging work.