Forensic odontology should not become, as Geoffrey Pyke (1893–1948) the maverick inventor during the Second World War, once described such lost knowledge: “A lesson in collective forgetfulness”. This was said about the use of self sterilizing sphagnum moss as a field dressing due to a content of phenolic compounds. One amongst many of perhaps 350 species of the genus Sphagnum; Sphagnum angustifolium, was used as a highly absorbent wound dressing in both World Wars, the Spanish Civil War and before.