NOOOOO

Firstly, this picture is MOSS. Actual moss-moss. NOT lichen. It is moss In Iceland, so it is Icelandic moss generally, NOT Iceland Moss (common name) specifically, which is, yes, a lichen--Cetraria iselandica. (This is why common names suck so hard)

Cetraria islandica looks like this:

Olive to brown, glossy, leathery, grows with moss, is not moss. Moss and lichen are different things.

Secondly, C. iselandica is a symbiosis between a fungus and a green algae, NOT cyanobacteria. Don't even know where they got that from.

Thirdly, while there is a lot of lichen in Iceland, when you look across the moss fields (the ones I know they are referring to), you are indeed seeing mostly moss.

That's moss, baby! Along with smatterings of vascular plants and lichens, but majority Racomitrium moss!

Also did you know that moss isn't just moss? There are at least 460 species of moss in Iceland, along with nearly 200 species of other terrestrial non-vascular plants! They don't get nearly enough respect, and saying that the moss isn't even moss is like, so bizarre and misinformed? A great example of how little even folks who should be capable of doing the bare minimum of fact checking are relying too much on false sources of info

tundra texture tuesday

Cetraria odontella

Small-toothed Iceland lichen

I hate that Cetraria lichens are all called "Iceland lichen," because many of them, like C. odontella, DON'T LIVE IN ICELAND! Which is confusing, to say the least. C. odontella has a range that extends from continental Scandinavia through Siberia to northern Japan, and over to western North America. There are some scattered, specious records from other localities, but these observations require validation, as Cetrarias are difficult to distinguish due to their physiological plasticity and overlapping characteristics. (also they often like to grow together in mixed clumps that are physically difficult to separate, I say from personal experience). C. odontella is unique in that it can be found growing on rocks and rocky outcrops in boreal and temperate sheltered forests, whereas similar looking members of the genus (C. aculeata and C. muricata) prefer open tundra, terricolous habitats. It has a brown, cushion-like, fruticose thallus of erect, richly branched, lobes. The lobes are more-or-less flattened, with small pseudocyphellae (breaks in the thalline cortex) along the margins. Now that I know what I am looking for, maybe one day when I am going over my Cetraria specimens collected in Iceland I will find C. odontella and have to eat my words. Or maybe that specimen will accidently fly into the trash and I won't have to worry about investigating and revising lichen ranges.

images: source | source

Cetraria nigricans 

Blackened Iceland lichen

This foliose-fruticose lichen forms mats and rounded tufts made up of narrow, channeled, ciliate-margined lobes. The upper surface is olive to dark brown to black-brown in color, and becomes darker when exposed to sunlight. The lower surface is paler brown, with inconspicuous pseudocyphellae. It produces marginal apothecia which have spiny margins and convex, red-brown discs. C. nigricans grows on soil and rock in exposed, arctic-alpine regions.

images: source | source | source

Cetraria arenaria

Sand-loving Iceland lichen, sandwort cetraria lichen

So you know how Anakin Skywalker hates sand? Just fucking loathes the stuff? Well he’s pretty much the opposite of C. arenaria. Nope, nothing alike at all. C. arenaria fucking loves sand! Anyone will tell you. “Yeah, I mean, I hate sand, right? Well you know who loves sand? C. arenaria.” Sorry, I know these jokes are stupid, but any common names that like, anthropomorphizes a non-human organism tickles my fancy. This foliose-fruticose lichen has narrow, linear lobes with involute margins. The upper surface is often pitted and cracked, and the margins have little eye-lash like cilia. It varies in color to bright green to olive to orangish-brown. It grows in prairies and arctic areas, and, hey you guessed , usually grows on sand or sandy soils. 

images: source | source | source

It's

tundra texture tuesday