moss

/mɔs/

/mɒs/

Other forms: mosses

Moss is a small green plant that grows, carpet-like, across moist, shady areas. If you see a green furry rock as you hike in a forest, chances are that's moss.

Moss forms mats and clumps in wooded spots, and it's unusual in the plant world for several reasons, including the fact that it has no seeds and no real roots. It reproduces through spores and absorbs water through its tiny leaves. Long ago, people used moss to insulate dwellings, but today it's primarily used in gardens. The Old English root is meos, closely related to mos, "bog," which is a damp area where moss might grow.

Definitions of moss

1. noun

   tiny leafy-stemmed flowerless plants
   types:

   acrocarp, acrocarpous moss

   a moss in which the main axis is terminated by the archegonium (and hence the capsule)

   pleurocarp, pleurocarpous moss

   a moss having the archegonium or antheridium on a short side branch rather than the main stalk

   bog moss, peat moss, sphagnum, sphagnum moss

   any of various pale or ashy mosses of the genus Sphagnum whose decomposed remains form peat

   type of:

   bryophyte, nonvascular plant

   any of numerous plants of the division Bryophyta