Do you know your Boreal?

Mysterious Forest Life – TREX

Thanks to TREX Northwest (Art Gallery of Grande Prairie), a Mysterious Forest Life exhibit, accompanied by the Mother Earth book, has been touring Northwestern Alberta since September. With 24 large prints of macro shots of moss, mushrooms, and lichen, the exhibit is sparking curiosity amongst students and adults in schools, libraries and museums.

Here are a few images and a couple riddles from the 40-page exhibit catalogue (available as a free PDF): 

We live in forests, fens, and bogs. 

We can grow on a rock or grow on a log.

We’re a diverse, big family; 

some of us make socks for Aspen trees.

Some of us are red, and some of us are green,

Our superpower is to soak up the rain.

What kind of rootless plants are about

to help protect our land from floods and drought?

(See pages 18-21 in Mother Earth, available at your local library)

Knight's Plume Moss

Moss French: mousses | Cree: askiya Beaver: níízųl (moss on trees), tsáátl zís (moss bag for babies)

Before I started taking the time to look closely at these mini wonders, I thought moss was just green stuff that grew on trees. Then came the delightful day in May when I visited a black spruce bog and then a fen with peatland specialist Melanie Bird from the NAIT Boreal Research Institute. I had no idea there were so many kinds of moss! Pictured above is Knight’s Plume.

Sphagnum moss

Sphagnum moss [pictured under water] can absorb up to 20 times its weight in water. This moss and the peat it forms is like a giant sponge, keeping moisture on the landscape. And our ingenious Indigenous people created the first super-absorbent disposable diapers when they made moss bags for babies!

Sphagnum capillifolium

Sphagnum capillifolium

Prior to this guided moss-in-a-bog adventure, I thought all moss was green, because…well…that’s all I’d ever seen. Then Melanie showed me this moss with red pompoms (also known as Northern Peatmoss)!

There are three main kingdoms of living things: 

FLORA refers to plants,

FAUNA includes all wildlife, 

from grizzly bears to ants.

The third kingdom is FUNGI,

but I just don’t fit in.

I’m complicated; I’m a relationship. 

Do you know what I am?

(p.16 in Mother Earth)

Rock Lichen

Lichen

Fungi can’t photosynthesize (take sunlight and turn it into nourishment). In the case of lichen, it partners up with algae, cyanobacteria, and/or a specific kind of yeast, provides shelter for its photosynthesizing friends, and everybody’s happy! 

I don’t pretend to understand this symbiotic dance, but one thing’s for certain: I’m likin’ the lichen that’s rockin’ its relationship on this rock!

Rock lichen plays a role in soil formation by slowly etching the rock’s surface.

Cladonia deformis

Cladonia deformis is a type of cup lichen. I like to imagine the boreal fairies using these as their long-stemmed wine goblets. 

Old Man’s Beard

Old Man’s Beard makes a great campfire starter if you forgot to bring newspaper and you’re not a flint fanatic who delights in working wonders with wood shavings.

Reindeer Lichen

The Beaver First Nation word for Reindeer Lichen is madzihdyee’, which means “caribou food.”

Mushrooms

Find out next issue why FUNGI is so fascinating!

See the Mysterious Forest Life exhibit at:

Grimshaw Municipal Library | May 22 to June 18

Artist presentation by Sharon Krushel on May 26 at 10:30am

Peace River Museum June 26 to July 23

Pat’s Creek Hike on July 12 at 10am with presentation at 11:15am

Fairview Public Library July 31 to Aug. 27

Artist presentation TBA

For details, contact Sharon Krushel at krushel@mac.com or 780-625-6324. *The Travelling Exhibition program is funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Alberta Government.

Find the free PDF of the “Mysterious Forest Life” catalogue (with 24 images, stories, and activities) at the bottom of the Videos and Resources page of the MotherEarthBook.ca website.

This Peace Country Mysterious Forest Life exhibit will tour the Calgary and Medicine Hat regions for a year and will possibly be available again in our region for monthly bookings starting Sept. 2026, if TREX funding is available.

By Sharon Krushel, author of Mother Earth: Boreal Beauty of the Peace Country with Flora, Fauna, & Fungi ID, including Latin, French, Beaver & Cree