Lake Goblins & Accessorized Algae - Marimo
Hello and welcome back to another week of Rooted! This week we are DIVING into an aquatic plant that’s as adorable as it is mysterious- Marimo!
For those of you who might not have spent the last 5 years screaming about how cute these little guys look in hats, Mariomo is a kind of algae that naturally grows in a ball. It is by far the cutest aquatic plant and I simply refuse to entertain any arguments to the contrary.
Native to Japan and northern europe, these rotund rollers are a rare growth pattern of Aegagropila linnaei (an algae) that were dubbed “Lake Goblins” or “torasampe” in hokkaido Ainu, but have since been called Mariomo after japanese botanist Takiya Kawakami renamed them in 1898. Their name comes from Japanese words “Mari” which is a type of bouncy ball, and Mo- the general name for aquatic plants.
One of my favorite things about these cuties is that they grow in colonies, which means there are just huge patches of these little families of moss balls just rolling around at the bottom of lakes. When I have bad days sometimes I just watch time lapses of them just rolling around having the time of their lives down there…. And when I say little, it’s kind of a lie- these guys can get up to 37 inches (about 95 centimeters) which is pretty big for what is- in essence- a rolled up clump of algae. Not just that- but those bigger guys can be up to 200 years old, which means that we really are just watching a collection of wholesome grandpas wriggling around and having a ball. I cry, I scream.
If you aren't already in love with them, I am not sure who hurt you, but they do also have a VERY sweet origin story. In a tale as old as time, two star crossed lovers fell hard for one another, but were seemingly doomed to end up apart.
In this particular story, the characters are Senato- the daughter of a highly respected leader, and Manibe a normal dude who just really liked her.
Legend has it that these two basically locked eyes and fell in love, sneaking out to talk under the stars, and finding ways to share little trinkets in secret. But one day they grew tired of hiding, and decided to tell Senato’s father and ask for his blessing. Of course, it was denied, and the village shunned the couple, refusing to accept their love.
Not wanting to live without each other, these two rush to the forest where they stumble upon a lake, and willingly return their spirits to the nature that is believed to live in all human souls, forming the first 2 Marimo Moss balls.
While that might be how they got their start, it’s their unique conditions that have helped them to keep growing. Marimo requires cooler fresh waster with very limited movement to really thrive. They form their shape in nature by basically doing what can only be described as…a little dance? Basically as they grow, the algae still produces oxygen, but in tiny bubbles that push it around, floating up then sinking down, all while getting lightly pushed around by the soft movements of their environment.
These exact conditions are hard to come by, making these VERY rare. They are most commonly found in japan and iceland, with Hokkaido being their biggest protector and celebrater.
In fact, they actually produce MOST of the commercially available Marimo balls as a part of their fish commission, Rolling the algae themselves rather from removing the naturally occurring Marimo and breaking up their family.
They DO select some Marimo each year to attend their festival, but as soon as it is over a town elder rows them back out to the lake and brings them back. It is so cute and honestly now I just feel like we HAVE to go. Right?
In the meantime, we can all daydream about visiting hokkaido with our very own marimo pets. You can find them at most fish stores and online, and they require VERY little care. They don’t like a ton of light, and short of just keeping the water fairly clean and rolling them occasionally, they really prefer to just kind of hang out with you. Some people even dress them up with silly little hats and my heart has never known more joy. Those photos will (of course) be on social .
That’s really all i’ve got for this week. If you need me I will be somewhere crying about algae. Until next time!
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