This walking tour, which took place as part of the This Is Not A Gateway festival 2010, surveyed the prevalance and range of byrophytes in the City of London.
The walk investigated how bryophytes are effective “biomonitors” that can be studied as indicators as urban environmental health. Mosses are exchangers of urban energies and materials, and the tour explored these interesections of natural-cultural ecologies in the financial and historic center of London. Professor Jeff Duckett, bryophyte specialist and scientific associate at the Natural History Museum of London, provided expert instruction in identifying mosses and liverworts in sites across the City.
Through an up-close encounter with the micro-ecologies of mosses, walk participants engaged in a discussion of what forms of urban “sustainability” and “site work” might come into view from this altered perspective.
“Becoming Urban: Sitework from a Moss-Eye View” is a paper that I have published (in Environment and Planning A, 2012) to discuss this urban walking event.