Children grow a ‘lichen’ to moss pets

By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI

abartolomucci@vindy.com

Fellows Riverside Garden hosted its monthly Sprout Club event on April 21.

Mandy Smith led the class and taught the children all about moss, algae and lichen. After a brief introduction, the children went outside into the garden to find different kinds of moss, algae and lichen. There were stones and cement ground covered with moss, trees covered with lichen and wet stones from the fountain covered with algae.

The children learned how each type of plant is beneficial to the environment and how they are created. The children were eager to have the chance to go outside and be able to look and touch the different plants they were learning about.

“Marimo moss come from lakes in Japan and what happens is water moves back and forth and it takes the algae and starts to shape it round. People in Japan have had Marimo moss pets for hundreds of years and they can live for hundreds of years,” said Smith.

At the end of the class, each of the children got to make a little home for their own Marimo moss ball. The children put in beads, shells, pearls, rocks and many others items in a jar to make the Marimo moss ball a nice home. Everyone was allowed to take home their Marimo moss ball and have their own little moss pet. The Marimo balls the children were given were small, but can grow to be the size of a soccer ball.