A Young Naturalist Spots a Tree-Like Moss in Lithuania! - Observation of the Week, 1/18/22

Our Observation of the Day is this Tree Climacium Moss (Climacium dendroides, Palminė junetė in Lithuanian), seen in Lithuania by @stelute!

[@stelute is an account shared by a young naturalist, seven year-old Stela Beatrice Nauburyte (Stelute is a nickname), and her mother Brigita. Brigita answered my questions via email, so the quotes all come from her. - Tony]

“On the first day of 2022, while walking in the forest,” recalls Brigita,

Stela Beatrice noticed the tree climacium moss and exclaimed “Mom, look what a beautiful moss!” Mother still doubted if it was worth photographing, because this type of moss had both been found before, but Stela persevered.  “So green in winter, so gentle, so soft - just amazing, let's take a picture!” And it was definitely worth it! This discovery by Stelute not only delighted the girl, but also received pleasant attention from the iNaturalist community :)...

Walking along the forest paths, discovering various mosses, watching the life of beetles is like hearing a new fairy tale of Nature, unheard of and more and more interesting.

A species that’s found in many moist places across Eurasia, North America, and parts of New Zealand, tree climacium moss gets its common name from the palm tree-like stems which can grow up to 10 cm tall.

Stela learned about iNaturalist last year when two Lithuanian iNatters, @almantas and @tomasp, appeared on TV to promote their “Surask juos visus 2” (“Find them all 2”) project, encouraging young Lithuanians to find 100 interesting species in the country. She found a very cool Lesser Stag Beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus, Platusis elniavabalis in Lithuanian) soon after that an “she brought it in the palm of her hand and asked - ‘What is it, maybe one of the hundred we are looking for?’ It was fantastic to see those joyful eyes when she heard the positive answer!” says Brigita.

So in the spring of 2021, Stelute, her brother, and her mother began exploring nature nature - meadows, forests, near water bodies, around home. Stelute’s parents, relatives and some friends got involved as well. It is a wonderful incentive to take a fresh look at the environment around us, to fall in love with nature's creations once again and more sincerely. And where there are new friendship with Nature enthusiast, photographer, and poet Ramunė Vakarė (@ramune_vakare), entomologist of Kaunas Tadas Ivanauskas Zoology Museum and researcher at the Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Tamutis (@vytautas_tamutis), and of course countless other information and photos from iNaturalist observers from all over the world, which Stelute and her family view and discuss - this is an inexhaustible source of knowledge!

Her camera and a phone with the iNaturalist app has become an indispensable helper in answering Stelute's (above) constant questions: “What is the name of this wonderful flower? And how long does this bird live? Why is it so hard to photograph this  northern dune tiger beetle? What do butterflies feed on?” And hundreds more :) Mom can no longer answer “I don't know...” to the questions of a young nature lover. Stelute immediately reminds her - “Let's take a look at the iNaturalist app!” It is gratifying that we find the answers immediately, and they are gladly supplemented by other iNaturalist observers. Thanks to iNaturalist.org that she felt like a young scientist!

(Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.)

- Almantas Kulbis’s Bird’s Nest orchid was featured as an Observation of the Week over four years ago!

- Brigita tells me that Stelute hopes to eventually have a career in science, but is not sure what field that might be. She has a small microscope but would love to eventually get one that allows her to see bacteria and other micscrosopic organisms.

Posted on January 18, 2022 10:30 PM by tiwane