Lichen love

I love lichen, it is just the most amazing organism, and so varied! The most common round here is the golden sort, the white sort and the grey follicle looking sort. I can’t resist taking photos of it, and probably have an awful lot of pictures which look very much the same as each other; lichen on a wall, lichen on a tree, lichen on a rock, lichen on a gravestone, lichen on slates, tiles, and almost anything which stands still long enough for a lichen to grow on it!

The postman came today with a package for me… a package I hadn’t ordered, and it was a book from my husband about lichen! It is actually called ‘Lichen’ by William Purvis and is published by the Natural History Museum. It is full of gorgeous pictures of lichen of all colours from all over the world, and also has a beginner’s guide to the why, where, how of lichen, plus an interesting chapter on its uses both in a practical sense for dying, eating, drinking etc.,  but also as an indicator for pollution.

I now know that the golden sort is Xanthoria parietina, the white stuff might be , Hypotrachyna brittanicaand the grey stuff might be reindeer moss lichen… I say might be because really I think I need to go on a course – a lichen course!

I love my husband!