Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Nature Speak

Lichen life in Whistler? You Betcha! Whistler Naturalist Society Have you seen any blood-spattered beard, fairy puke, or antlered perfume around Whistler lately? If you have, you may be in the minority that truly notice what is possibly the most over

Lichen life in Whistler? You Betcha!

Whistler Naturalist Society

Have you seen any blood-spattered beard, fairy puke, or antlered perfume around Whistler lately? If you have, you may be in the minority that truly notice what is possibly the most overlooked organism in the terrestrial world. It’s not a plant, nor is it an animal. It’s lichen.

In the simplest technical terms, a lichen is the physical manifestation that results from a symbiotic partnership between a fungus and an algae.

And the magic that results from this relationship is amazing. Ponder these capabilities:

Lichens can remain dormant for long periods, survive scorching deserts and complete losses of body water, and (in lab tests) withstand prolonged exposure to temperatures of -196 degrees C., all without harm.

Their complex chemistry produces more than 700 identified chemicals, some of which can break down rock into soil, and others that hold valuable pharmaceutical properties, including antibiotics.

Lichens can also absorb nitrogen from the air and transmute it into essential organic growth compounds, which in turn can fertilize our local forest soils with as much as one half of their nitrogen content. Total magic!

Lichen are often described as ‘fungi that have discovered agriculture’, a feat they achieved several hundred million years ago. While most fungi invade or scavenge for nourishment, lichen fungi cultivate compatible algae within themselves, through fungal filaments that surround and grow into the algal cells. The algae are photosynthesizers, and thus can supply food to the fungus in the form of protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins. The fungi side can provide the alga with water, minerals and protection from the elements. From this partnership more than twenty thousand different kinds or ‘species’ of lichen are known to exist, with new ones being constantly discovered.

Several hundred species of lichen inhabit our surrounding forests, including the common, light green alectoria sarmentosa , or ‘witches hair’, which has been garnered by many a local tree skier for use as artificial dreadlocks. Similarly, traditional cultures in our area used this same lichen to decorate ceremonial dance masks, as well as for bandages, baby diapers, sanitary napkins, bedding fiber for mattresses, absorbent fiber for cleaning salmon, and even, by the Lillooet (Stl'atl'imx) people, as raw material for ponchos and footwear.

Somewhat resembling witches hair is usnea longissima , or ‘Methuselah’s beard’. This longest of lichens (up to 6 meters) craves old growth forests and is extremely sensitive to air pollution. Consequently, it has been nearly extirpated from our area. If you find a stand of it hanging from trees or draped over shrubs in a well-ventilated forest around Whistler (it resembles Christmas tree tinsel), remember it has strict habitat requirements, is slow to grow and spread, and shouldn’t be collected.

This same lichen, which was documented as an internal medicine in China over 1,500 years ago, has recently disappeared from localities in much of its range. In Europe, for example, it has virtually vanished.

The ‘antlered perfume’ lichen that is common on trees at lower elevations throughout our region has been used in the manufacture of perfume since the 16th century. Other historical and wildly diverse human uses of lichens around the world include; embalming Egyptian mummies, insulation, producing aphrodisiacs, hallucinogens, alcohol, magic potions, poisons, and cosmetics, feeding livestock, and, perhaps most universally, as a source for dye.

Some forms of lichen will grow almost anywhere as long as there is light for photosynthesis, and will grow on anything, like plastic and rusted metal. Many lichens are now used by man as bio-indicators. Some species are the only organisms able to survive in areas of high radioactive contamination, for example, and others, like Methuselah’s beard, can measure air quality.

Certain lichens’ sensitivity to impure air was first recognized in Europe in the 1860s. Subsequent studies have confirmed serious impacts on lichen health resulting from urban and industrial air pollution, which is why lichens are so scarce in urban environments. Lichens are now being used as bio-monitoring scales by scientists to quickly and cheaply assess levels of air toxins in North America as well as Europe.

Local fauna certainly like our lichen. One of our perennial favourites, the hummingbird, uses it for nest-building, and camouflage. Common mergansers and many other birds also build with lichen.

Numerous invertebrates, like spiders, moths, and slugs use it for habitat, camouflage, and/or food. And lichen provides carbohydrate-laden meals for local mountain goats, deer, moose, pikas, and rabbits. It’s treasured in the diet of many rodents, and particularly by voles and flying squirrels, which happen to be the two of the major staples of the critically endangered Northern spotted owl.

The Northern flying squirrel gathers lichen such as ‘Bryoria fremonti’ or ‘tree hair lichen’ to make warm winter bedding to nest in, and to provide a larder if necessary. Other large ungulates also eat Bryoria in winter, and it was widely consumed by traditional societies, with some considering it a delicacy and others considering it famine food. You can view clothing made from Bryoria lichen in natural history museums in New York and Chicago. The Lillooet and Thompson (NLaka'pamux) peoples made clothing and shoes from Bryoria.

Lichens have two basic ways to reproduce. They may produce a soredia, a kind of microcosm of itself that grows inside and then becomes exposed to disperse and form new lichens. A second way is for the upper surface to bear small, wart-like growths, a sort of miniature lichen, or isidia, protected by an outer cortex tissue. When carried to new locations, by agents such as animals, or wind, isidia or soredia may become new lichens.

In spite of being tough, sensitive, successful, pioneering organisms (like some local skiers I know), lichens are losing ground to increasing industrialization and habitat losses. Hopefully, with the information being provided by this unique life form, we will soon come to a fuller realization of the impact our airborne pollutants have on the environment. In the meantime, look out for brilliant ‘Pincushion orange’, ‘Devil's matchstick’, or ‘Peppered moon’ lichen, when you're heading out for some hiking or biking.

Last weeks column on Devils Club was written by local botanist Kristina Swerhun and not Veronica Sommerville. Sincere apologies to Kristina for the mix-up.

For more information on Whistler Naturalist Club, please contact Veronica Sommerville at veronicarobin@yahoo.ca .

Upcoming Events:

Alpine Flower Nature Walk, Saturday, July 26, from 8 a.m. to noon. Enjoy a morning in the alpine with local experts as they showcase the summer beauty of the high mountain bowls. Pre-registration required. Call Veronica Sommerville at 604-935-8323 or email veronicarobin@yahoo.ca . Free for members, $20 for non-members.

Monthly Bird Walk

August 2 at 7 a.m. Meet at the bottom of Lorimer Road by the Catholic Church.