Go to the forest and make a moss bottle

"I'm Xiaojing. Our favorite place in Dali is the forest. There are different treasures in the mountains all year round. There are mushrooms in the rainy season, and pine cones, pine nuts, and ferns in autumn and winter. There are different flowers and plants in each season. The girls in our picking group always go up the mountain, and no matter what season it is, we can always find new things. You are welcome to join our mountain adventure!"

Hike into Cangshan Mountain, heading towards Wuwei Temple, passing by streams. We will collect mosses, ferns, small stones and place them in a glass container provided for you to create a miniature Cangshan forest to take home (suitable for carrying on planes and high-speed trains).

Total distance: Approximately 2.5 km (round trip).

Suitable for ages: Adults who love nature, and children over 3 years old.

Here’s what the small plants we collected looked like after being in a humid environment for a week.

Plants collected directly from the mountainside require no special care, except watering every three days and opening the lid for ventilation once a week.

In Dali, the air is often relatively dry, especially in winter, but if you enter Cangshan Mountain and turn over the soil covered with pine needles, you can see a thick layer of green moss, which is probably moisturized by the pine needles.

That day, Wangwang and I went to explore Cangshan Mountain. We crossed a stream and entered a pine forest. Suddenly, many lovely mosses and ferns emerged on the walls on both sides of the road, like stars and small chrysanthemums.

It’s not only adorable but a little magical to see them here during this dry winter, probably because they are close to the stream and you can occasionally see springs seeping from the mountains. I imagine these little elves will grow even more vigorously in the summer.

The origin of this event comes from our guest "Sloth".

One day during the busy summer season, Sloth booked me for a "forest photography shoot". I took her into the forest where I often go to pick mushrooms, a moist and lush forest. When we got there, Sloth was quickly attracted by the thick moss under the roots of the trees and the moss at the bottom of the trees. I was influenced and started looking around, and found fragments hidden in small stones that looked like mushrooms, which she noticed.

But I hadn’t really noticed before.

The time I spent searching for moss elves allowed me to temporarily escape the busyness and pressure of my peak season work and return to the real forest. I felt calm and focused, which reminded me of the first time I went mushroom hunting. Is this feeling of being out of touch with reality the so-called "healing"?

After the shoot that day, I told Sloss, "When I was picking mushrooms, I saw some lovely moss growing on pine cones." As I thought about it, I decided to pick one for her next time.

From that point on, I looked not only for mushrooms, but also for moss-covered pine cones.

(Mossy pine cones found by Yang Mi while picking mushrooms)

Scenery on the road

• Gray moss
• 
• Tower moss and hairy moss
• 
• Warm bigleaf moss
• 
• Neosphaeria whip
• 
• Star Moss
• 
• Sage moss
• 

During your trip:

In the summer, sloths bring back plants from Cangshan Mountain.

As for whether it can be brought on the plane, Sloth also responded: Yes.

Our team introduction:

Our mushroom picking group consists of five or six girls, namely Zacaojing, Yanzi, Xiaomin, Wawan, Li Zhenhao and Dai Xiang. They each have their own strengths. They study various mushroom books and participate extensively in field work in different forests.

To summarize their characteristics: they have both profound theoretical knowledge and rich field experience in forestry.