#licheologist

Peltigera britannica

Flaky freckle pelt lichen, Deciduous pelt lichen

I feel the burden of guilt hanging around my neck: I was making fun of British food. It is really not fair as an American, but it also generally feels like punching up? Or at least punching sideways. But it is still punching. So to assuage my guilt somewhat, I will praise the beautiful, the graceful, the intriguing and wonderful P. britannica. This foliose lichen has large, leafy lobes with undulating margins. When moist and fresh, the upper surface in bright green, and when dry and old, brownish-gray or olivaceous. It has dark, laminal cephalodia (gall-like structures containing a secondary photobiont, in this case cyanobacteria) which can peel off and leave behind white scars. The underside is pale white or gray, and has light or no venation. P. britannica grows on or in conjunction with moss on rocks, walls, and trees in sheltered woodlands. It is native to northern Europe and North America. There. I feel much better now. May I learn to live in peace with the Brits the same way P. brittanica lives in harmony with not one, but two photobionts.

images: source | source

Cladidium bolanderi

Bolander’s fog fingers

This chonky friend can be found growing on acidic rock and soil along the pacific coast of North America in areas that receive regular fog. There are a number of gorgeous lichens that only occur in this very specific habitat, where they are threatened by human development, climate change, wildfire, and pollution. If you know anything about California, this isn’t surprising. Luckily measures have been taken to monitor this lichen, but many coastal lichens are not so lucky. So do what you can to support conservation, science, and people just like, giving a fuck about organisms that aren’t typically considered charismatic. 

images: source | source | source

Graphis scripta

Common script lichen, secret language lichen

There are a host of Graphis lichens to choose from when highlighting this particular genus of script lichens, but I decided to go with the most common species, G. scripta. Well, maybe it is not really the most common. With over 300 very similar looking species, this particular species name may be over subscribed. Like the other members of the Graphidacae family (thought to have the most species of any lichen family), G. scripta is crustose, and lacks a thallus. It is a lightly colored cream or gray, with those distinct lirellate apothicia that give it the appearance of writing. It can also have immersed pycnidia. It prefers to grow on the smooth bark of deciduous trees. As mentioned above, there is some debate on if this particular species is restricted to temperate zones, or if the species concept should be applied to more wide-spread tropical and sub-tropical species. Either way, you are likely to run into a Graphis somewhere out there, so keep your eyes open for this cool lichen pal, and maybe you will decode what it is trying to tell us with its mysterious writings. 

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Parmotrema tinctorum

A little peak behind the curtain here a Lichen a Day--when deciding a lichen to highlight, I often just do a general search for “lichen” in Google Scholar in a different time range and see what species come up. Often I have to sort through a lot of medical articles on lichen planus or lichen sclerosus before I find something, but today I was lucky enough to come across this fascinating lil pal I had never heard of before, P. tinctorum. This lichen has largely been studied for its chemical properties and potential use as an antifungal/antimocrobial agent (source) (source) (source) (source), but has also been studied to better understand its symbiotic relationships and genetics (source) (source).

P. tinctorum is foliose, loosely adnate, and can grow up to 30cm in diameter. Members of this genus are noted for their ruffly appearance, and this boi is noted for their delicate and complex lobule folds. Upper thallus is gray, shinier on the margins and duller toward the center, and the underthallus is typiclaly dark brown-black with sparse, simple rhizines. It grows on trees in temperate and equatorial regions around the world. A very good friend of science!  Follow for more lichen goodness!