#lichencore

Tragically common occurrence for me 😩

Usually this “fake moss” you see above is actually lichen in the Cladonia genus. A cursory google search may say that this is once of the most common lichen (which is technically true), HOWEVER none of these can be farmed or cultivated, and they are rapidly disappearing across ecosystems. All these lichens are harvested from the wild in an entirely unregulated way. Lichens also grow very very slowly, many less than one millimeter per year if at all!! That’s like cutting down an old growth tree to put on an art project, a choice that people have the right to know that they are making, but it is definitely not something people selling these products disclose.

Here you can find a paper with more background info! Please consider avoiding crafting with these organisms 💚 more info and a paper under the cut

Which one is the coolest of the forest :

- Lichen

- Mushroom

- Blob (physarum polycephalum)

??????????