I love underdogs. For us plant ecologists, the more cryptic species groups, plant families that are hard to distinguish, or plant families that are small or inconspicuous could all be considered “underdogs”. Think about mosses, lichens and grasses for instance. No fancy colourful flowers (or at least not in the way that we are used to them), and often hard to tell apart without a loupe or microscope. I secretly enjoy learning about what others overlook or dismiss as being too difficult. Here I share some mosses and lichens from the forests around my hometown, and from Siberia.