Alan Thomson, age 14, of Burlingame, Calif., for his question:
Is peat the same as peat moss?
Peat is a dark and spongy soil, and peat moss is a dainty member of the plant world which is pale green, red, yellow or greener than emeralds. Nevertheless, there is a relationship between peat and. Peat moss. As a rule, the mossy plant is one of the main ingredients in spongy peat soil. Another ingredient in peat is muddy clay, and it takes a long time to mix these ingredients.
The story of peat begins in a marshy swamp, a drying lake or a boggy stretch of drowned land. There must be a shallow supply of muddy water. These conditions are just right for the sphagnum mosses to flourish. There are more than 350 species of peat moss, and all of them love swampy water. Some species are vivid green, and some of them have feathery fo1iage & foot long. But no mosses have true roots or stems.
The Sphagnum mosses are the chief peat mosses or peat forming mosses. Their matted foliage carpets the surface of the swampland, and in time it dies and sinks to the muddy floor. There it partly decays, and its fibers mix with the mud to form layers of soggy, spongy soil, meantime new generations of sphagnum moss crowd the surface of the swamp.
There are peat bogs in many parts of the world. The Bog Of Al1en in Ireland is a peat bog and so is Dismal Swamp shared by Virginia and North Carolina. When the bog becomes dry enough, the layers of peat soil can be spaded out and left to dry in th air. In marry countries, these lumps of peat are used as fuel. Peat gives forth a gentle fire and 8 tangy smell. It does not sparkle and crackle like a coal fire. But good peat gives off two thirds as much heat as coal. Charcoal made from compressed peat gives a fire hot enough to smelt iron.
An old peat bog is often covered with blowing dust and buried under new layers of rock and soil. It may be buried far below the surface. When conditions are right. After many millions of years, the peat buried deep underground becomes a layer of coal.
Both peat and peat moss are useful to the gardener. Black, buried peat is rich in nitrogen and hence a valuable fertilizer. Peat moss is gathered and dried to pack delicate plants, such as orchids. It is used to sprout seeds and also to spread onon parched ground as a mulch to trap and hold a layer of surface moisture.