reindeer moss

Multiple Entries:
  reindeer moss    moss  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
reindeer moss

▶noun a bluish-grey arctic lichen, eaten by reindeer in winter. [Cladonia rangiferina.]

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
moss/mɒs/

▶noun

• 1 a small flowerless green plant which grows in low carpets or rounded cushions in damp habitats and reproduces by means of spores. [Class Musci.]

  ■ used in names of algae, lichens, and other low-growing plants, e.g. reindeer moss.

• 2 Scottish & N. English a peat bog.

▶verb (usu. as adj. mossed) cover with moss.

– derivatives
mossiness noun,
mossy adjective (mossier, mossiest).

– origin OE mos ‘bog or moss’, of Gmc origin.