Collections

The living collection holds some two hundred and sixty kinds of moss, grown on the terraces and in the Fern Vault, a cool stone room beneath the main building. The herbarium holds several thousand dried specimens, each given a catalogue number when it is mounted.

The rarest moss in the collection is Corrin's lantern moss, a pale gold moss that grows only on the shaded side of the Kettleback terrace wall. Its herbarium specimen carries the catalogue number MDO-4471-K. The living colony is not shown to the public, but a photograph of it hangs in the reading room.

Other highlights include a cushion of feather moss that has grown on the same stone since 1913, a mat of water-thread moss taken from the Stirren Beck before the beck was straightened, and a drawer of mosses sent from other valleys by correspondents of the founder.

Researchers may request loans of dried specimens by writing to the keeper's desk. Living material is never lent.