Barbara Blaness, age 9, of Ivanhoe, California, for her question:

What exactly is moss?

The mosses are small velvety plants and scientists have counted at least 14,000 different kinds. The trees are taller and many other plants bear beautiful blossoms. But the shy little mosses have lived on earth much longer than they have. There were mosses on the dry land 350 million years ago.

Other plants have stiff stems to prop them up and roots created especially to soak up grater from the ground. The little mosses manage without special cells to perform these special duties. Instead of true roots they have little fingers called rhizoids to anchor them to the ground. Most mosses sprout little spikes to hold up their dainty little packages of spores, or seedlets. None of them have flowers. But when we look through a magnifying glass, we see that every moss plant is a little beauty.