Lichens

Calcareous Rimmed Lichens

Calcareous Rimmed lichen forms roundish white spots on exposed rock; it has a surface that often cracks like dried mud and can become spotted with tiny black spots. This is the calcareous-rimmed lichen. Calcareous Rimmed Lichen is found worldwide wherever limestone rock is exposed to the elements. In North America, it is more common in the West. It is found growing in all parts of Vancouver Island. Read More….

 

Catillaria Chalybeia Lichen

The Catillaria Chalybeia lichen looks like tiny black dots usually found growing on top of other rock lichens. The black dots are tiny, ranging in diameter from 0.15 mm to 0.5 mm. The rims on Apothecia are narrow and black in colour, the discs may also be black also but are usually a dark grey with a flat surface. Apothecia are scattered widely across the rock and are rarely found in clusters. Read More….

 

Common Orange Lichen

The Common Orange Lichen is a leafy lichen. It is also known by the names yellow scale, maritime sunburst lichen, and shore lichen. Look for it on inland rock bluffs, along trails, and on trees; it is also quite common on boulders along lakes and streams. It is quite common on the BC coast. They are leaf lichens. The lobes of the thallus are up to 4 mm in diameter and flattened.  Read More….

 

Cumberland Rock Shield

The Cumberland Rock Shield Lichen is a grey to green lichen which is found across much of North and South America. It can be found in the Pacific Northwest. It is a relatively large lichen and grows on rocks, where it is tightly attached and impossible to remove. They can grow to 30 cm across the colonies and can be of various shapes.  The lichen is divided into deep, irregular shapes near the center and often has a black edge. The underside of the lichen is a light brown colour. Read More….

Fairy Puke

Fairy Puke, or as it is more commonly called, fairy puke can be found in the Pacific Northwest and on all of Vancouver Island. It is a genus of crustose lichen. The genus has six species that can be found in the northern hemisphere. Of these, only Ericetorus can be found in North America. It has a mint green crustose thallus that is dotted with bright pink apothecial disks. It grows on moss that covers rotted wood and peat. Read More….

 

Fork Tube Lichen

Forked Tube Lichen grows abundantly on the BC coast, and if you just look around in our coastal forests, you will see it. Lichens grow in every part of the BC coastal region, and when you start to look for them, you will realize that they are very abundant and so very pretty to see. Take a very close look, and you will be amazed at their beauty. Read More….

 

Freckle Pelt Lichen

Freckle Pelt Lichen is a leaf lichen; the leaves are loosely attached and are up to 5 cm wide. They are dull grayish-green when dry but turn bright green when wet. You will see scattered warts on them. The lower surface sometimes has broad, cotton-like, inconspicuous veins that darken inward from the tips of the lobes. They are very common across Vancouver Island. Read More….

 

Golden Moonglow Lichen

The Golden Moonglow can be found on rock bluffs and boulders. The golden moon glow lichen is a small, round lichen. It usually is no bigger than a dime but noticeable because of the way the dark, disc-shaped fruiting bodies in the center turn greenish-yellow outer edges. One unusual aspect of this lichen is its squamulose form. A squamulose lichen falls somewhere between the leafy foliose lichens and crusty crustose lichens and has tiny, curled lobes around its outer edges. Read More….

 

Hypogymnia Heterophylla

Hypogymnia Heterophylla, or as it is more commonly called, Seaside Bone Lichen, can be found on southern Vancouver Island. This lichen is currently listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act. On the southern coast of Vancouver Island, there are seven known populations of Seaside Bone Lichen, which are all located within 40 km of each other. Read More….

 

Lipstick Cladonia Lichen

This is lipstick Cladonia Lichen, one of my favourite lichens. The Lipstick Cladonia is actually a symbiotic growth of fungi and algae. It is found on dead wood, the base of trees, and on rocks. It grows in temperate to boreal regions all over the world. As you walk through our island’s forests of Vancouver Island, look down,  you just might see the tiny forests with their gardens of wonder. Read More….

 

Lungwort

Lobaria Pulmonaria is commonly called lungwort. It is a foliose lichen, and its thallus is lettuce green, quite leathery with ridges and grooves on the surface. The thallus is up to 15 cm in diameter. The asexual reproductive structures can be seen on the surface. Small pockets of cyanobacteria are often seen on the lower surface of the thallus; they are darker than the green surface of the thallus. When it is wet, it becomes a bright green, but it will dry out to a dark brown colour. Look for small hairs on the underside. Read More….

 

Nail Lichen

Pilophorus acicularis, or as it is more commonly known, the nail lichen or the devil’s matchstick, is a species of lichen in the Cladoniaceae family.  The lichen begins life as a rough crust on the rock surface and then develops fruticose stalks that can be up to 3 cm tall and about 1 mm thick. You will find black apothecia on the tips.  It grows directly on silicate rocks in dense clusters. It is found in the Pacific Northwest and on all of Vancouver Island. Read More….

 

Oak Moss Lichen

Oak Moss is a species of fruticose lichen that is valued for its oriental fragrance and as a fixative base. It grows throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, in all of B.C., and on all parts of Vancouver Island. The pale greenish-gray thallus is up to 8 cm long and is palmately branched. The upper surface is green with pale gray reproductive bodies. Oak moss can vary in colour, being minty green or almost white when dry, or dark olive green and even yellowish when wet. Read More….

 

Pincushion Sunburst Lichen

The Pincushion Sunburst Lichen is a very pretty lichen that grows all over the Pacific Northwest.  Found on dead and living twigs and in the axils of wide-spreading branches, quite often found on fruit trees and hardwoods. Shaded specimens take on a light yellow hue. The small, yellow, tightly knit clusters of apothecia help in its identification. Its Latin name is Xanthoria polycarpa. Read More….

 

Pixie Cup Lichen

If you look closely at a Pixie Cup Lichen, you will see that the cup is where the spores reside; these are fungal hyphae entwined about a colony of algal cells. When a raindrop lands in the cup, it is scattered about. The next generation of Pixie Cups will not grow until the soredia connect with the host algae, Pleurococcus, which is a genus of green algae in the family Chaetophoraceae. Read More….

 

Reindeer Moss Lichen

Reindeer Moss Lichen grows in arctic and northern regions around the world. It grows on the ground and on rocks. It looks like green spongy moss and grows to be up to 10 cm high. The stems, or stocks, are hollow and branch out many times. Although it is called reindeer moss, it is actually a lichen. It grows in the whole coastal region of BC. Lichens are two separate organisms. They are made up of fungi and algae, which live and grow together.  Read More….

 

Shingled Rock Shield Lichen

Shingled Rock Shield Lichen is a foliose lichen commonly found on the BC coast. It is pale green with brown circular formations when young. The body of the lichen is composed of pale green leafy-shaped structures. They are small and flat against the rock, not upright, although they can be pulled off. Young ones may be thinner and more curly, while mature ones are wider and flatter. When they are in an early stage of life, roughly circular orange-brown craters will be present in the body. These fade and finally disappear with age. Read More….

 

The most striking thing about lichens is the enormous variety of colours and shapes. They can be orange, deep, pale, or bright yellow. They may be green with a yellow tinge, deep green, or olive. Some are gray, pale, or dark brown; others are mauve, ivory, and even black. They grow on trees, on dead wood, on bare rock, or on barren soil. Lichens grow on every part of Vancouver Island, and when you start to look for them, you will realize that they are so very abundant and so very pretty to see. Take a very close look, and you will be amazed at their beauty.

Lichens have long been thought of as plants. Indeed, their behaviour is quite similar to that of plants. Nevertheless, they have been mostly ignored by botanists and are often regarded as simple, odd, and unusual organisms. They are composed of two different entities that support one another: one is a fungus, and the other is an algae. Living together in such a way is referred to as symbiosis. The nature of this close relationship is still not quite resolved, although lichens are commonly referred to as the standard example of a symbiosis.

Commonly, three different growth forms of lichens may be distinguished: crustose, foliose, and fruticose. Crustose lichens grow on the rock as a tightly attached crust. They cannot be removed from this substrate without damage. Foliose lichens have an upper and a lower surface. They are flat like the leaf of a tree. Their lower surface can grow tightly on the substrate, but can usually be pried loose without much damage. Fruticose lichens may grow upright like a miniature shrub, or they may be pendulous like the hair of a beard.

As you walk through our island’s forests, look down, there you just might see the tiny gardens, gardens grander than any forest. These gardens usually grow on fallen logs and in hidden corners of the forest. Surrounded by ferns, tree seedlings, and small plants, minute forests of lichens have small, grayish-green leaves. They cover the log with tiny upright spires that rise toward the sunshine, and at the tip of each, you will see a beautiful red cap. This scene repeats itself all over the forests of Vancouver Island.

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