Scientists recorded electrical activity in moss for multiple days straight and found it behaves like a coordinated, living circuit, sending signals across the whole moss patch on fast and slow timescales at once.
1
First multi-day, centimetre-scale recording of natural electrical activity in the moss Brachythecium rutabulum revealed three nested timescales: fast oscillatory spikes, slower rhythmic fluctuations, and very slow depolarization waves.
2
Electrical signals propagate across the moss cushion between multiple electrode sites with clearly ordered temporal delays, rather than staying localized.
3
The moss showed gradual baseline shifts and extended periods of increased or decreased excitability, indicating persistent temporal structure over long durations.
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