Lichen

I have always enjoyed looking at lichen. However, I have never bought a book on the subject and cannot even name one sort! What fascinates me is the microcosm of life you can see in a small space with varying textures and colours.

 

Four years ago we had a family trip to Scotland and visited the Isle of Handa in West Sutherland. We mainly went there for the amazing variety of seabirds e.g. tysties or black guillemots, great skuas, etc. However I was fascinated that so many rocks such as the one above, simply had microgardens of lichen growing on them.

 

Tree trunks are no different and can yield fascinating details such as these from a medium sized fruit tree.

 

Further up the tree there are at least three varieties of grey-green lichen - a bush-like one, a "leafy" one and a flat spreading one.

 

Although a lot of lichens are grey or grey-green I love the bright yellow ones such as this one. St Ives in Cornwall has grey buildings roofed with slate. They could look dull were it not for the contrast with the bright yellow lichens.

 

Closer to home, when we moved to our present town we thought that there was a lack in imagination by the inhabitants due to a uniform darkish brown roof colour. We wanted a warm red roof tile and chose our tiles accordingly - they were originally close to the colour at the very top of the lower tile ridge.

However eight years since our house was built, our roof has changed colour dramatically. It is now a dark brown with grey, white and yellow spodges. Again this is lichen - OK there is moss there too!

However, one of the best things about litchen is that it is a good indicator of clean air. It does not survive with pollution. Some of the best examples of lichen I have seen have been in places with great air e.g. the Oberbayern (Bavarian Alps), Cornwall and the Northern Highlands.