Along a trail in Manning Park, we found many trees covered in hanging hairy clumps of lichens we refer to as witch's hair. The witch's hair group of lichens belong to the genus Alectoria. Five species in this genus are reported for BC--tufted witch's hair, grey witch's hair, green witch's hair and friable witch's hair. We are not sure which one this is, but it looks like an Alectoria species. However, its presence tells us that air quality in the area is good. Lichens like this group make good air quality indicators.
Note: This lichen has now been identified as Alectoria sarmentosaby our lichenologist friends.
Visit this site for more BC 'hair lichen' photos.
The Lichen Bible:
Brodo, Irwin M., Sylvia Duran Sharnoff and Stephen Sharnoff. 2001. Lichens of North America. Yale University Press.
4 comments:
There is a lot of hanging lichen -- I think it's called "Old Man's Beard" ( Usnea hirta ) -- here in the Saint John area. I didn't know it was indicative of good air quality; I just thought it meant a damp climate!
It could be an Usnea. We are going back out tomorrow to collect some to put under a microscope and run it through some keys--see if we can ID it. Will post a name if we can.
Hi, I am hosting the 38th edition of the festival of trees (http://festivalofthetrees.wordpress.com) and would love to include a link to this post you have on witches hair. Please do post any more information that you may have found out on this topic since this post. If you have pictures of trees that you saw covered with witches hair, that will be just great!!
thank you!
Thanks so much for the interest in this post ROS! I will see if I have other photos I can add.
Post a Comment