Looking at lichen. Again.

The oldest living lichen, a map lichen, is estimated to be 9,500 years old. The lichens, like the mosses, grew here hundreds of millions of years before the first human ancestors rested on a mossy bank. I don't know whether these facts are comforting: life goes on, whatever challenges arise: or distressing; the lichens and mosses (and the cockroaches, too, they say) will be here when we're a faint memory.

These lichens are younger, no older than the trees they live on.

At least three, maybe four lichens, and a moss on the bark of an alder.

A beard lichen. It covers this bare shrub from top to bottom.

The tiny "pimples" on the bark are probably also lichens.

Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria. The easiest of all the lichens to identify.

Mostly moss, but where you find moss, there is usually lichen. Two lichen species here, maybe three.

Reindeer lichen is usually found on the ground or on logs. These cushion a rock face, along with mosses and ferns.

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Los líquenes son organismos de larga vida. El que se considera el más viejo, un liquen geográfico, Rhizocarpon geographicum,  ya lleva 9.500 años de vida. Los líquenes, al igual que los musgos, crecían aquí cientos de millones de años antes de que el primero de nuestros ancestros se reclinara sobre una piedra cojinada con musgos. No sé si estos datos me traen consuelo: la vida persiste, no obstante los retos que surgen: o si provocan desaliento; los líquenes y musgos (y, se dice, las cucarachas) seguirán aquí cuando nosotros sean una memoria tenue.

Estos líquenes son más jóvenes; su edad se limita por la de los árboles sobre los cuales están creciendo.

1. Tres, o tal vez cuatro, líquenes en el tronco de un aliso rojo.
2. Un liquen "barba", Usnea sp. Cubre este arbusto desprovisto de hojas desde el suelo hasta la punta de las ramas.
3. Los pequeños botoncitos en la corteza probablemente sean líquenes también.
4. Lobaria pulmonaria. Este liquen grande se reconoce facilmente.
5. Musgos en una rama. Donde encuentras musgos, normalmente los acompañan algunos líquenes. Aquí se ven dos, o tal vez tres, especies de líquenes.
6. El liquen de reno casi siempre se encuentra en el suelo o encima de troncos tirados. Este se ha establecido sobre un peñasco, acompañado de musgos y helechos.

Should be big-lichen maple.

"Bigleaf maple carries a greater load of mosses and other plants than any other tree in our region. Sometimes the bark is not visible anywhere on the tree trunk and main branches." (From the guide, Plants of Coastal British Columbia.)

The "other plants" include licorice ferns, liverworts, a grand variety of lichens, and occasionally, seedlings of other trees. Winter is the best time to look at them, when the leaves are all rotting on the ground. Flowers won't appear until March, the first leaves a bit later.

At least two species of larger lichens here. And, of course, moss.

At the foot of the trees, a downed branch bearing lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria. And moss.

Middle branches. These trees are young, and still have large areas of bare bark.

Compare with the clean lines of the red alders.

View from my road again. Notice the lichen crawling up the trunk. Sunlight shining through moss outlines the branches.

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"El arce de hoja grande, Acer macrophyllum, sostiene una carga de musgos y otras plantas mayor que la de cualquier otro árbol de nuesta región. A veces la corteza no se puede  ver en ninguna parte del tronco ni en las ramas mayores." (Del libro guía, Plants of Coastal British Columbia.)

Las mencionadas otras plantas incluyen los helechos regaliz, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, las hepáticas, una gran variedad de líquenes, e incluso las plántulas de otros árboles. Se ven mejor en invierno, mientras las hojas del año pasado reposan muertas en el suelo. Las flores no aparecerán hasta marzo, y las primeras hojas un poco más tarde.

1. Aquí se ven por lo menos dos especies de líquenes grandes, además de los musgos.
2. Pulmonaria, un liquen grande, Lobaria pulmonaria, en una rama caída, acompañada por musgos, sobre hojas muertas de arce de hoja grande en el suelo.
3. Ramas en el centro del árbol. Estos árboles son todavía jóvenes, y parte de su corteza sigue sin líquenes.
4. En contraste, los troncos y ramas del aliso rojo siguen limpios, sin líquenes.
5. La vista desde mi camino, mirando hacia el pantano allá abajo atrás de los árboles. Se ven los líquenes que cubren el tronco más grande; la luz del sol pasando por el musgo, delinea los troncos.

Fallen fixer

Rock a bye babylichen, on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come babylichen, cradle and all.

(Nursery lullaby, adapted for BC forests.)

After the winter storms, the forest floor is littered with tree-top lichens. Some, like the loosely-attached bone lichens, fall in small handfuls; the lungworts, heavy with rain and often growing intermingled with soggy moss, bring down whole branches, sometimes small trees.

Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria

All to the good.

Although lungwort’s main photobiont is a green alga, (Symbiochloris reticulata), it is also a type of cyanolichen, which means that it contains nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Nostoc sp.). When these lichens fall to the ground after a storm or wind event, they decompose into the forest floor, contributing their nitrogen reserve to the soil. (US Forest Service)

Definitions:

• Photobiont: one of the components of a lichen with the ability to photosynthesize; the algae and the bacteria. The fungal component is non-photosynthetic.
• Nitrogen-fixation: atmospheric nitrogen is converted into nitrates or nitrites, which are then usable by the fungal component of the lichen, and once delivered to the soil, by forest plants.

Part of a whole fallen branch, coated with moss and lungwort.

Some of this fixed nitrogen reaches the ground regularly, leached from its tree-top garden by the usual rains. Then a good storm takes a hand ...

Despite representing a small part of the total aboveground litter biomass (up to 2.3%), L. pulmonaria litter releases up to 11.5% of the total N input from aboveground litterfall. ... The decomposition process of cyanolichens ... can release up to 2.1 kg of newly fixed N per hectare per year, which would otherwise remain unavailable. (MDPI)

In the forest, nothing goes to waste.

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Arrorró mi nenelíquen, en la copa del árbol,

Cuando sopla el viento, se mecerá tu cuna,

Cuando se rompa la rama, se caerá tu cuna,

Y vendrás pa' abajo, mi nenelíquen, con cuna y todo.

(Canción infantil tradicional, adaptada para los bosques de nuestra isla.)

Después de las tormentas invernales, el suelo en el bosque está cubierto de los liquenes que crecen allá arriba, entre las copas de los árboles. Algunos, como por ejemplo los liquenes "hueso", que cuelgan aflojadamente de las ramas, llegan en pequeños ramilletes; los liquenes Pulmonaria de árbol, pesados a razón del agua, viviendo en conjunto con musgos igualmente empapados, vienen para abajo en grandes trozos, inclusive con ramas o arbolitos enteros.

Foto: un trozo de Lobaria pulmonaria en el suelo.

Todo va bien.

Aunque el fotobionte principal del líquen L. pulmonaria es un alga verde, Symbiochloris reticulata, es también un tipo de cianoliquen, que contiene bacterias que fijan el nitrógeno (Nostoc sp.). Cuando estos líquenes caen al suelo después de una tormenta o un viento fuerte, se descomponen, integrándose al suelo del bosque, contribuyendo su reserva de nitrógeno a la tierra. (US Forest Service)

Definiciones:

• Fotobionte: uno de los componentes de un liquen que tienen la capacidad de llevar a cabo la fotosíntesis, o sea un alga o una bacteria. El hongo que forma el tercer miembro del liquen no tiene esta capacidad.
• Fijación de nitrógeno: el proceso de formar nitratos y nitritos a base del nitrógeno atmosférico, haciéndolo aprovechable por el hongo, y, al caerse al suelo, por las plantas del bosque.

Foto: parte de una rama grande caída, cubierta de líquenes Pulmonaria, y de musgos.

Una parte de este nitrógeno utilizable llega al suelo frecuentemente, filtrado desde su jardín en lo alto por las lluvias. Y luego hay una buena tormenta ...

Aunque representa una pequeña fracción de la biomasa caída sobre el terreno (hasta el 2.3 %), la materia caída sobre el suelo de L. pulmonaria libera hasta 11.5 % del ingreso total de nitrógeno del esta materia. ... El proceso de descomposición de los cianolíquenes ... puede liberar hasta 2.1 kg. de nitrógeno recién fijado por hectarea anualmente, el cual de otra manera no se podría utilizar. (MDPI)

En el bosque nada se desperdicia.

Location, location, location

Some lichens are picky in their choice of growing sites. Reading through the habitat section in the guide book, I find such narrow ranges for specific lichens as, "near waterfalls" or "on sloping rock", "among the roots of fallen trees in shady sites at lower elevations", "on smooth bark of deciduous trees"; "acid mineral soil", and so on. Some will grow only on conifers, some prefer alders. Some like their wood alive, some want old lumber. Some prefer their rock to be freshly exposed; others are happy with any rock, as long as it's in the right location.

So looking at lichen, trying to identify each type, it helps to notice where exactly it was growing, not only the substrate, but its surroundings.

These four grow in the Oyster Bay Shoreline Park, all on the edges of the small meadow.

Cladonia spp.

This was growing on the cut end of a very old fence rail. A few grew on other cut areas, but not along the length of the rail.

Could be Bull's eye lichen.

I couldn't get down close to this rock for a better look. The lichen grew on two large rocks a few metres apart, in an exposed spot with little to no shade. Going by the age of rocks and of lichen, this could classify as "freshly exposed"; the park was only developed 30 years ago, and these rocks bolster the new dike.

Brand-new lungwort.

Two patches of this lichen are growing in the shade on an old cottonwood. More grows on other cottonwoods nearby. Lungwort likes trees in humid forests, and this is a dry site, but cottonwood is a water-loving tree with an extensive root system, and its wood is always wet.

A dust lichen

This dust grows on the same cottonwood, near the roots on the more exposed side where it receives a bit of sunlight but is protected from rain by dense branching overhead.

Note: paying attention to the growing site won't identify the lichen, but it helps. It helps.

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Algunos de los líquenes tienen ideas muy concretas acerca de donde quieren vivir. Leyendo en mi libro guía, en las descripciones del habitat de cada liiquen, encuentro descripciones tan específicas como, por ejemplo: "cerca de cataratas", o "sobre piedra inclinada", entre las raices de árboles caídos en lugares con sombra en alturas bajas", "en la corteza lisa de árboles de hoja caduca", "en tierra mineral ácida", y así por el estilo. Algunos crecen solamente en los coníferos; otros prefieren alisos. Algunos necesitan madera viva; otros la quieren muerta y bien podrida. Hay los que buscan rocas recién expuestas al aire; otros aceptan cualquier roca con tal de que esté en su lugar preferido.

Así es que, al tratar de identificar un liquen, hay que considerar el sitio, no solo del sustrato, sino del ambiente donde se halla.

Estos cuatro crecen en el parque Oyster Bay Shoreline, en los bordes del pequeño prado.

Foto #1: Cladonia spp. creciendo en el extremo cortado, muy viejo, de un riel del cerca. Donde otros rieles llevaban cortes, también crecía este liquen, pero no a lo largo de los mismos rieles.

Foto #2: Puede ser el liquen Placopsis gelida. No pude bajar para verlo mejor. Crece en dos rocas grandes separados por unos cuantos metros en un sitio expuesto a los elementos, sin protección de árboles. Tomando en cuenta las edades de rocas y de sus líquenes, esta roca puede tal vez considerarse como "recién expuesta", ya que el parque mismo tiene apenas 30 años, y las rocas que aquí sostienen el dique nuevo habrán sido colocadas después de esto.

Foto #3: Una Lobaria pulmonaria nuevecita. Crece en la sombra en la corteza de un álamo viejo. Más ejemplares crecen en otros álamos alrededor. A este liquen le gustan los sitios húmedos, y este lugar es más bien seco, pero el álamo es un árbol amante del agua con un sistema de raices muy extendido, y la madera siempre está mojada.

Foto #4: En el otro lado del mismo álamo, cerca de las raices, donde le llega un poco de sol, pero donde las ramas entrelazadas arriba le protegen de la lluvia, crece este liquen polvoriento.

Hay que recordar que aun al establecer el sitio, eso no asegura la identificación. Pero ayuda.

Bright green when wet

Far above my head, the branches hang heavy with lungwort. And sometimes they break off and fall on my trail.

Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria

It had rained recently; the upper surface is a pale grey-green when it's dry.

Although lungwort’s main photobiont is a green alga, it is also a type of cyanolichen, which means that it contains nitrogen-fixing bacteria. When these lichens fall to the ground after a storm or wind event, they decompose into the forest floor, contributing their nitrogen reserve to the soil. (from US Forest Service)

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Muy por encima de mi cabeza, las ramas llevan grandes hojas del liquen pulmonaria. A veces rompen la rama y caen al suelo.

Foto: El liquen pulmonaria, Lobaria pulmonaria. Hace poco que llovió. Cuando se seca el liquen, la capa superior se vuelve de un color pardusco.

Aunque el fotobionte principal es un alga verde, también es un cianoliquen, lo que significa que contiene bacterias que fijan el nitrógeno. Cuando estos líquenes caen al suelo después de una tormenta o viento fuerte, se descomponen en es suelo del bosque, y contribuyen sus reservas de nitrógeno a la tierra.  (De US Forest Service)

So green

It's raining again. As usual. The sky is grey, the ocean is grey, the distant mountains are grey. But the lichens! Oh, the lichens!

Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria, after the rain.

These leafy lichens are pale, bluish green, fading to dark brown in the summer heat. But give them a good bath, and they quickly turn this bright, saturated green.

The underside of the thalli (leaf-like structures) is brown with whitish patches. On lichens over 25 years old, tiny reproductive structures form on the surface of the thalli, like little discs or powdery spots. A few are visible on the edges of some thalli in the photo.

The lichen is common throughout our low-lying coastal forests, growing mainly on trees, sometimes on rocks. 

Tree trunk in party dress. Miracle Beach forest.

Long, long ago, we were taught that a lichen is a symbiotic organism consisting of a fungus living with a green alga. That was amazing enough, but in recent years, we've learned that it's a three-kingdom arrangement; a fungus, from the Fungi kingdom, a green alga (Protista kingdom), and a cyanobacteria (Eubacteria kingdom). The mind boggles.

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Está lloviendo otra vez. Como siempre. El cielo es gris, el mar es gris, las montañas distantes son grises. ¡Pero estos líquenes! ¡Ah, estos líquenes!

Fotos: líquen Lobaria pulmonaria, en una rama, y vistiendo el tronco de un árbol, acompañado de musgos.

Estos líquenes foliosos son de un color verde pálido, volviéndose color café oscuro en el calor del verano. Pero llega la lluvia, y de inmediato se vuelven de este color verde brillante. La parte inferior de los talos (como hojas) es café con manchas blancas.

En las pulmonarias de la edad de 25 años o más, se forman pequeñas estructuras reproductivas, como círculos o polvo en el talo. Se pueden ver algunas de estas en la primera foto.

La pulmonaria se encuentra comunmente creciendo sobre árboles en nuestros bosques húmedos en tierras costeras.

Hace muchos, muchos años, nos decían que los líquenes eran una combinación en simbiosis de dos organismos: un hongo, y un alga verde. Algo asombroso para contemplar. Pero recientemente, hemos aprendido que consiste en una relación de tres reinos: un hongo, del reino Fungi, un alga verde, del reino Protista, y un cianobacteria, del reino Eubacteria. ¡Increíble!

Chameleon lichen

After a few days of strong winds, the forest floors are littered with broken branches, dead leaves, conifer needles, and lichens; clumps and threads and whole branch-loads of lichens.

Two lichens; Lungwort and a beard lichen. On a Bigleaf maple mulch.

High on the trees, where the rain drains away quickly and the lichen is exposed to sunlight, the thallus is a mix of browns, from pale beige to dark chocolate brown, to a yellowish mid-brown. In the shade, where it's still dry, it's a paler greenish-grey. Tossed down here onto the wet ground, and then rained on, it turns a bright green on top, and a pale blue-grey on the underside.

The beard lichen, those pale threads mixed in with the lungwort, stay the same colour whatever the weather.

I didn't know this:

L. pulmonaria has the ability to form both vegetative propagation and sexual propagules at an age of about 25 years. ... Dispersal by vegetative propagules (via soredia or isidia) has been determined as the predominant mode of reproduction in L. pulmonaria. ...In this method, the protruding propagules become dry and brittle during the regular wet/dry cycles of the lichen, and can easily crumble off the thallus. These fragments may develop into new thalli, either at the same locale or at a new site after dispersal by wind or rain. (Wikipedia)

25 years! Lichen is slow-growing. How many years does it take to completely coat a tree, like the one I posted yesterday?

Who needs leaves in winter?

... when there's leaf lichen?

Licheny tree, Ridge Trail.

A branch within reach. Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria.

The lobes supposedly look like lung tissue. Basing their reasoning on sympathetic magic (if it looks like something else, it must be good for that thing), European physicians used this to treat lung ailments. Here on the Canadian west coast, the Sechelt First Nations people used it for the same purpose, but for different reasons.* Maybe it actually worked?

*See Plants of Coastal British Columbia

When it's wet ...

... it's very wet. At least here, in our coastal rain forests. And being wet, it's also green, very green.

Lungwort, a large, leafy lichen, grows on trees. And when the rains are heavy and prolonged, it falls off in great chunks. I picked one up beside our trail in Miracle Beach park, vibrantly green, after weeks of soaking.

Lungwort, Lobaria pulmonaria, on wet log, moss, and maple leaves.

If you look closely (check the middle lobe on the far right), the reproductive structures, soredia and/or isidia, are visible as small, brownish lumps along the edge and the ridges.

Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungal hyphae wrapped around cyanobacteria or green algae. (Wikipedia)
An isidium is a vegetative reproductive structure ... They are fragile structures and may break off and be distributed by wind, animals, and splashing raindrops. (Wikipedia)

I flipped the lichen over. The underside was lumpy, almost white, except for the pale brown wool in the valleys.

Lungwort underside. Some of the soredia are visible along the edges.

I don't often see this lichen so brilliantly green. Once the rains stop, it dries to a pale yellowish brown.

Lungwort in dry weather. Taken at Brown's Bay, last February.

Green tails, bears, lungs, and a smile

In our wet, shady rainforests, sometimes sunlight sneaks under the canopy with its yellow highlighter.

I passed the entrance to a trail leading down into a valley, parked, and went exploring.

All the colours of green

It was a short trail that dropped down the hill to a cleared area about the right size for a tiny cabin. It seems that was the plan; there's a good pile of alder firewood, sawed to small woodstove size, now gently rotting, soaked through and growing moss. Tipsy fence posts line the trail, and a solid cement block with a fluffy moss cushion barricades the entrance. No-one has been working on the site, though, for a few years.

A rusting iron loop embedded in the cement block, peeking through the moss.

The shady ground between trees is mostly covered in evergreen ferns, still dripping wet on this sunny afternoon. Mosses climb the trees and drape from bare branches.

Cat-tail moss and Licorice fern.

A Cheshire cat smile.

Thick, cushiony moss and Licorice fern on an old cottonwood.

Licorice ferns often seem to be growing as single stalks, as in the first photo above, but each stalk has sprouted from a long rhizome that runs along under the moss. The rhizome is brownish, up to a foot long; "they" say (but I have never tested this, because I am reluctant to rip out that beautiful moss) that it tastes of licorice.

Licorice ferns are interesting edibles. More and more restaurants are using them to infuse sauces, make teas, or serve candied. The anise-like flavor is apparent when the root is nibbled raw, but in a sauce I find it much more subtle, with a touch of a licorice sensation on the tongue and a hint of sweetness. (From Fat of the Land)

The fern fronds are evergreen, at least in our wet forests.

Unidentified moss on a stump.

I couldn't find this moss anywhere in my book. The individual leaflets (or are they clumps of tinier leaves?) are almost like miniature maple leaves.

At the head of the trail, where sunlight percolates through more consistently, recent wind storms had brought down large quantities of shredded lungwort from far overhead. I found a few overgrown trees within my reach, later on that afternoon, at Rock Bay.

Lungwort, a few other lichens, and a bit of moss, keeping the tree warm.

On this tree, the lichen is pale green and brownish; along the trail in the bush, even the torn leaves were much greener. This lichen absorbs water, much as moss does, and becomes green and flexible. Here it is on a rock in Bella Coola:

Looks good enough to eat.

 Compare those to this, on a dry tree at water's edge, exposed to sunlight and wind.

The little "warts" are isidia, reproductive structures.

Lungwort and a hanging clump of beard lichen.

Spotty wonder

It's still raining. The lawn is all decked out for St. Patrick's Day, a luscious green that owes its bright colour more to the moss, thriving in all this wet weather, than to the straggling, drowned grass. My new flowers still sit in pots, waiting for a dry day so I can plant them; the leaf mulch on the back of the garden is a slippery, slimy mess. I may have to do the spring cleanup under an umbrella.

I was standing out there yesterday, keeping out of the rain under the overhang, staring dejectedly at my mud patch, when I noticed that the Pulmonaria has shot up two flower stalks topped with buds. Yay, spring!

Pulmonaria, and Creeping Jenny in back. In the rain.

This plant has stayed green and upright over the winter, without a complaint even when some of the hellebores froze and collapsed. I think it has grown some since last fall.

I had these when I lived up north; after 4 or 5 months under deep ice, they burst into bloom with the first sunlight of the year. And what blooms! A bold pink in the bud, opening to pink flowers that turn blue as they mature. The same stalk will have flowers in all stages; a mixed bouquet on one stem.

They grow happily in deep shade, in acid or alkaline soil, even in poor soil. It doesn't mind the rain, as long as it has decent drainage. And the slugs don't like them! (I wonder if they extend their influence to the plants next to them. I'll try planting the lettuce in a circle around this one. Maybe I'll even manage to get some salad before the slugs do.)

The plant is named for the leaves that look like diseased lungs; "pulmo" in Latin, giving us Pulmonaria, or lungwort (lung plant, from Old English "wyrt".) The name is easy to remember, true, at least if you've ever seen a rotting lung. But it does have other common names, more in tune with the cheerful flowers. Some, like Adam and Eve, Soldiers and sailors, Joseph and Mary, obviously refer to the two colours showing at the same time. The patterned leaves give us "Spotted dog". But did you ever see a green dog? And then there's "Lady spilt the milk", Spotted Mary, and Jerusalem cowslip. Take your pick, or make up your own.

Lungwort Trivia : Usually, when you see a silver leaf, the color is due to a layer of wax on the leaf surface or due to a lack of the green chlorophyll pigment in that region of the leaf. Lungwort is different. In this case lungwort leaves get their silver color from pockets of air trapped beneath the leaf surface. These pockets make the tissue above them opaque instead of transparent and the normally green interior cells of the Lungwort can no longer be seen. (From Plant Delights Nursery)