Lichens and Mosses of Dartmoor
- Jack Dicker
- Nov 4
- 7 min read
The mist drifts low across Dartmoor, softening the granite and the trees. Look closely and you’ll see the quiet life clinging to bark and stone. Children spot them first, their eyes drawn to the bright greens and silvery greys. What looks like a blur of texture becomes, on closer inspection, a living miniature forest filled with hidden creatures and stories waiting to be noticed.
Lichens and Mosses of Dartmoor - what they are?
Lichens aren’t plants at all but a team, a fungus and an alga living together, helping one another survive. They take their colour and strength from the partnership, making them some of the most resilient organisms on the planet. Mosses, on the other hand, are tiny plants that don’t have roots or flowers, just fine leaves that draw water straight from the air. They’re nature’s carpet, soaking up moisture, cleaning the air, and creating shelter for all sorts of insects and fungi. Both thrive in Dartmoor’s clean atmosphere and near-constant moisture, which is why you’ll find such a dazzling range of shapes, colours, and textures wherever you wander.
Where to find them
Walk almost anywhere on Dartmoor and you’ll find them: tangled on old oaks, carpeting granite walls, draping over fallen branches, and edging the bogs. The cleaner the air, the richer the variety, which makes Dartmoor one of the best places in Britain to see them. The woods at Hembury, the slopes near Burrator, and the tors above Widecombe all shimmer with these small but mighty species. If you stop and crouch low, you’ll find an entire world under your fingertips, tiny forests, spore towers, and delicate structures that thrive in the peace and damp of the moor.
Beard Lichen (Usnea subfloridana)
Beard lichen is one of Dartmoor’s most striking species, hanging like pale green threads from tree branches, often mistaken for wisps of moss. Its delicate, hair-like strands shimmer after rain and sway in the lightest breeze. This lichen thrives in clean air, which is why you’ll find it in Dartmoor’s old oak woods and valleys where the mist lingers. It collects moisture directly from the fog, making it perfectly adapted to life on the moor.
Folklore links beard lichen with luck and protection for travellers. It has also been used as a natural antibiotic and wound dressing, thanks to its antiseptic compounds. When you spot it, notice how soft it looks. but resist the urge to touch; it’s fragile and slow-growing.
Fun for kids: People once used beard lichen as natural bandages because it helps stop bacteria.
Oakmoss (Evernia prunastri)
Oakmoss grows in soft, tangled tufts on tree trunks, especially oaks and beeches. It changes colour with the weather, pale and crisp in dry spells, dark green and flexible after rain. Lean in and you might notice its earthy, forest scent; it’s so distinctive that perfumers use oakmoss to bottle the smell of damp woods and leaf litter.
On Dartmoor it favours sheltered, long-loved trees and often lives alongside other lichens, creating patchworks of texture that tell the story of clean air and continuity.
Fun for kids: Oakmoss helps make perfume and aftershave, like taking the smell of the woods home.
Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria)
Thick, leafy, and vivid, lungwort looks like something from another age. Its wrinkled, lobed surface glistens when damp, resembling the structure of lungs, which is how it got its name. It’s one of Dartmoor’s rarer lichens and a clear indicator of ancient, undisturbed woodland with very clean air.
In medieval herb lore, people believed plants that resembled body parts could heal them. Lungwort was used for coughs and chest complaints, a reminder of how closely we’ve always studied nature for clues.
Fun for kids: Its shape looks like lungs, so people once thought it could heal them.
Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia rangiferina)
This pale, branching lichen forms frosted-looking mats across granite boulders and heath. Drought, wind, and cold barely bother it. When dry it turns crisp and light; a drop of rain and it rehydrates within minutes, springing back to life.
Reindeer lichen helps hold thin soils together and is vital winter food for reindeer in the Arctic. On Dartmoor you’ll see it in the open, where weather is at its wildest.
Fun for kids: Reindeer in colder countries actually eat this lichen.
Map Lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum)
High on the tors, map lichen paints granite with bright yellow-green ‘continents’. Each crusty patch grows less than a millimetre a year, making some colonies hundreds of years old. Scientists even use its growth to estimate how long rocks have been exposed, a technique called lichenometry.
It’s Dartmoor’s slowest cartographer, drawing maps that only patience can read.
Fun for kids: You can ‘age’ a rock face by measuring these tiny maps.
Shield Lichen (Parmelia sulcata)
Shield lichen forms silver patches on trees and stones, its cracked surface catching the light after rain. It’s a resilient pioneer that returns early when air quality improves, then helps other species settle by breaking up bare surfaces and trapping moisture.
Look closely for tiny disc-like fruiting bodies, the lichen’s way of spreading to new homes.
Fun for kids: Its shiny, cracked surface looks like tiny pieces of armour.
Feather Moss (Hypnum cupressiforme)
Feather moss weaves a thick green carpet along walls and roots, creating the lush texture that defines Dartmoor’s ancient woodland. Each stem is finely branched, forming a dense mat that traps moisture and shelters countless tiny creatures, springtails, mites, and beetles that rely on its humid microclimate. It can withstand long dry periods, bouncing back to vivid green after the rain returns. In shaded places, it mixes with lichens and liverworts, painting the woodland floor in layered shades of emerald and gold.
Fun for kids: Feather moss can soak up twenty times its own weight in water, like a natural sponge!
Sphagnum Moss (Sphagnum palustre)
Sphagnum moss is one of Dartmoor’s quiet heroes. It forms thick, spongy layers across the moor’s wetlands, absorbing and holding vast amounts of water. These mosses act as a natural filter, slowly cleaning the water that flows through the bogs into the rivers below. Each clump can store several times its weight in water, helping to prevent flooding and keeping Dartmoor’s streams clear and cool even in summer.
Historically, sphagnum moss was used for dressing wounds due to its antiseptic qualities and incredible absorbency, it was even packed into medical kits during World War I. On Dartmoor, it provides a soft landing for wildlife and walkers alike, although it’s best admired, not disturbed.
Fun for kids: During World War I, soldiers used sphagnum moss as bandages because it’s clean and absorbs so much moisture.
Cushion Moss (Leucobryum glaucum)
Cushion moss creates rounded, velvety mounds that look like green pillows scattered across the forest floor. Its silver-green colour comes from tiny air pockets inside its leaves that catch the light, giving it a soft glow on cloudy days. Cushion moss loves still, damp spots, under tree roots, beside streams, and on the shaded sides of granite boulders.
Each mound can live for decades, slowly growing as new shoots form from the centre. Beneath the surface, countless micro-organisms find shelter, turning each cushion into a self-contained world. If you look closely, you might even spot tiny insects moving across its surface, like climbers exploring a miniature mountain range.
Fun for kids: Each cushion is a tiny home for insects and other mini-creatures, like an apartment block in miniature.
Common Haircap Moss (Polytrichum commune)
Common haircap moss is one of Dartmoor’s most recognisable mosses. It grows upright in dense, forest-like patches, with tall green stems topped by coppery spore capsules that catch the sunlight after rain. This moss thrives in wet, acidic soils, often around peat bogs or damp woodland clearings.
Its strong, wiry stems make it resilient to trampling and drying out, allowing it to form thick, springy mats that stabilise the ground and hold moisture for surrounding plants. In winter, frost coats its tips with tiny crystals that sparkle in the low morning sun. Early botanists admired its structure under magnifying lenses, comparing its miniature trees to the forests around them.
Fun for kids: One of the tallest mosses in the UK, some stems grow taller than your boot!
Silky Forklet Moss (Dicranum scoparium)
Silky forklet moss is easy to spot along Dartmoor’s shaded slopes and riverbanks. Its bright green shoots grow close together, all leaning in the same direction like wind-blown grass. When touched by sunlight, it gleams as if polished. It prefers damp, acidic soil and often grows beside heather or bracken, spreading steadily across banks and fallen logs.
Because its leaves all bend one way, it’s sometimes called “the compass moss.” It provides nesting material for birds and shelter for beetles and snails, thriving quietly in places where few other plants can survive.
Fun for kids: Its shiny leaves look like green hair combed by the wind.
Shaggy Moss (Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus)
Shaggy moss, sometimes called “big shaggy,” forms wide, sprawling mats under trees and along paths. Its long, feathery stems intertwine to make dense green carpets that remain lush even through dry spells. In Dartmoor’s woods, it cushions the ground and keeps the soil beneath moist, helping tree roots and fungi thrive together.
This moss grows surprisingly fast for such a soft-looking plant and can cover large areas in just a few seasons. Birds often pluck its strands for nest building, and you’ll find it mixed with leaves, twigs, and the occasional acorn on the forest floor, nature’s own patchwork quilt.
Fun for kids: This moss was once called “Big Shaggy”, no wonder, it’s as soft as a blanket.
Image Credit Summary
Lairich Rig – Usnea subfloridana (Beard Lichen) – CC BY-SA 2.0
Ryan Hodnett – Evernia prunastri (Oakmoss) – CC BY-SA 2.0
Björn Sothmann – Lobaria pulmonaria (Lungwort) – CC BY-SA 3.0
James Petts – Cladonia rangiferina (Reindeer Lichen) – CC BY-SA 3.0
Michael Maggs – Rhizocarpon geographicum (Map Lichen) – CC BY-SA 4.0
Björn Sothmann – Parmelia sulcata (Shield Lichen) – CC BY-SA 3.0
Benny Mazur – Hypnum cupressiforme (Feather Moss) – CC BY-SA 3.0
Claire Halpin – Sphagnum palustre – CC BY-SA 3.0
Alex Lomas – Polytrichum commune (Common Haircap Moss) – CC BY 2.0
All images hosted on Wikimedia Commons and used under Creative Commons licences allowing sharing and adaptation with attribution.
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