The BLAM (Bryological-Lichenological Working Group for Central Europe) Lichen of the Year for 2026 is . . .

Candelaria pacifica!!!!

This gorgeous golden lichen was chosen for perhaps the greatest reason something can be chosen to be recognized ever: because it has gone overlooked! You see, for a long time, lichenologists thought that there was only 1 Candelaria species: C. concolor. But a bit over a decade ago, it was split into 2 by scientists in the Pacific Northwest who could only speak to its distribution in their region. But when lichenologists in Europe started looking more closely at Candelarias in their region and in their collections, they realized that maybe there had also been 2 species in Europe all along! With C. pacifica hiding in plain sight, going overlooked and understudied this whole time! And so lichenologists all over middle Europe are going back and looking for C. pacifica to better understand its ecology and distribution. I think this theme is so important: we all have blind spots, and it benefits all of us to examine our beliefs, learn from others, and be open to the possibility of change. And we can embrace this journey not with incredulity, but with excitement for the expansion of our world view! This year, embrace careful observation, learning, and growth. Remember that if a lichen this bright and noticeable and cosmopolitan can be overlooked, imagine what that means for so many less charismatic organisms out there, right? So as always, keep standing up for the overlooked, understudied, little-guys of the world.

images: source (Norbert Stapper, Matthias Schultz) | source | source

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