Wetland Grasses, Sedges, Rushes, Mosses, Ferns & Horsetails

Take a walk through a wetland and its surrounding area and see some of the major plants that grow there and, at the same time, learn about why they are important, what they look like and their incredible techniques for survival.  

Most plants can’t survive the demands of “wet feet”. Usually too much water causes them to wilt and virtually “meltdown”, as they become bloated and soggy. But there are a few hardy plants that know exactly how to deal with this problem – in fact they were the first plants to evolve on Earth and are indeed, the ancestors of the garden trees, bushes and flowers that we grow today. 

It is interesting that, of the Grasses, Sedges and Rushes, Rushes are the only ones to have changed little since their first ancestors – keeping the same looks, systems of pollination and root formation – why change something that works? Interestingly, modern Grasses and Sedges have, over the centuries, purloined many of the Rushes successful survival techniques! 

Mosses on the other hand, are the first to colonize open ground, so, not surprisingly, they are tremendously talented, bringers, nurturers and maintainers of life, which makes them probably the ancestors of all plants that adapted to living on dry land – after millennia of practice, they just know how it’s done. And, even when Moss is seemingly dead, it can burst back into life. Their environment neighbours, the Ferns, are strangely dissimilar looking, but similar in many lifestyle ways. In fact, it could be thought that Ferns have pretensions to mammalian lifestyles – or did they develop these ways first? We learn more about miniature-sized Ferns and Tree Ferns with gigantic leaves. So, let’s get out the wellies and set off on our walk!

Wetland Grasses, Sedges, Rushes, Mosses, Ferns & Horsetails is available in a paperback version with exceptional colour photographs and as a digital book plus an audio version with original countryside sounds – enjoy!