“Medicinal Lichens”, by Robert Rogers LICHENS (Parmelia sulcata) LUNGWORT SALTED SHIELD, ROCK SHIELD (Lobaria pulmonaria) (P. saxatilis) (Sticta pulmonaria) POWDERED SUNSHINE (Pulmonaria officinalis) (Vulpicida pinastri) ICELAND MOSS (Cetraria pinastri) (Cetraria islandica) (Tuckermannopsis pinastri) USNEA ROCK ORANGE LICHEN, JEWEL LICHEN (Usnea spp.) (Xanthoria elegans) REINDEER LICHEN FRAGILE SPHAEROPHORUS (Cladina spp.) (Sphaerophorus fragilis) STUDDED LEATHER LICHEN, FAIRY ALPINE SPHAEROPHORUS PELT/LEMON LICHEN (S. globosus) (Peltigera aphthosa) HOODED TUBE LICHEN, HOODED BONE, GROUND LIVERWORT, DOG LICHEN MONK’S HOOD LICHEN, PUFFED LICHEN (P. canina) (Hypogymnia physodes) WITCH'S HAIR SMOKY RIM LICHEN (Alectoria sarmentosa) (Lecanora cenisia) BLACK TREE LICHEN GREEN LIGHT, ARCTIC KIDNEY LICHEN (Bryoria fremontii) (Nephroma arcticum) (A. jubata) Dermatocarpon moulinsii SPECKLED HORSEHAIR Solorinia crocea (B. fuscescens) Siphula ceratites SIMPLE HORSEHAIR Ramalina tumidula (B. simplicior) Platismatia glauca ALPINE CORAL Thamnolia subuliformis (Stereocaulon alpinum) Haematomma lapponicum WILD OWL CLOVER Lepraria latebrarum et al. (Evernia vulpina) PARTS USED‐ lichen thallus NORTHERN PERFUME LICHEN (E. mesomorpha) “Late in life I have come on fern. PUNCTURED GRISTLE Now lichens are due to have their turn.” (Ramalina dilacerata) ROBERT FROST PLATED ROCK TRIPE (Actinogyra muhlenbergii) “Or to swamps where the usnea lichen (Gyrophora muhlenbergii) hangs in festoons from the white‐spruce (Umbilicaria muhlenbergii) trees.” FROSTED ROCKTRIPE THOREAU (Umbilicaria vellea) (U. americana) WAXPAPER LICHEN, POWDERED SHIELD Did you hear the one about the fungus When this idea of two organisms living and the alga…They took a lichen to each together was first proposed, it was other. considered quite radical. Mordecai Cooke denounced this Lichen is from the Greek LEIKO ‐ to lick dualism as “unqualified romance which or lick up; a habit of the plant to lap its a future generation will contemplate as tongues all over the host. Lichen may fairy tales”. also come from the Greek for "leprous, The German Simon Schwendener wrote wart or eruption", as Dioscorides in 1869, “This fungus…slaves are green thought they resembled the skin of algae, which it has sought out or indeed afflicted people, and used the Doctrine caught hold of, and compelled into its of Signatures as an attempted cure. The service. It surrounds them, as a spider French scientist Tournefort named them its prey, with a fibrous net of narrow back in 1700 AD. meshes, which is gradually converted Usnea is from the Arabic USHNA for into an impenetrable covering, but moss. Bryoria is derived from while the spider sucks its prey and Bryopogon and Alectoria; two genera to leaves it dead, the fungus incites the which it was formerly assigned. algae found in its net to more rapid activity, even to more vigorous Lichens are a slow growing symbiotic increase.” combination of fungi and algae. As The term helotism, suggesting a master‐ such, they do not completely resemble slave relationship, may best describe either group, but have their own lichens. beautiful and distinctive look. One They have the ability to grow in the lichenologist called lichens "fungi that coldest, snow‐free alpine and boreal have discovered agriculture", in forest, often growing less than a reference to their symbiotic millimeter a year. It is estimated that relationship. 13,000‐30,000 lichen species inhabit the For a long time, it was believed that the planet. Over 20 species are added to relationship was symbiotic. Many the list in British Columbia each year. scientists now believe, following Lichenographs, or printed illustrations, laboratory study, that the fungus is were first published in 1480. Linnaeus really a parasite. When lichens were was not keen on lichens, and called experimentally separated in labs and them “Rustici pauperrimi”, or the poor grown apart, the algae grew more trash of vegetation. quickly and the fungus more slowly; Lichens have been used for natural however, when the two join forces, they dyes, including the tartans of Scotland. can survive where neither would make A few crofters still produce Harris it one its own. In fact, scientists could Tweed using the lichen Parmelia get them to rejoin only when conditions omphalodes. An added advantage over would not support them separately. synthetic dyes was that bitter lichen Strange bedfellows indeed! acids repel moths. The related P. chlorochroa, which grows on calcareous rocks on the prairie grassland, was used by the Navaho to produce nice warm species more than 50% soluble in water, brown dyes to their wools and blankets. while Cladina fibre is less than 5% Brilliant blues, pinks and purples are soluble. possible, something highly unusual in Aspicilia esculenta, which is closely the plant kingdom, by using the related to A. cinerea and A. ammonia in urine and fermenting for caesiocinerea, is believed by some several weeks. It is said that smell of scholars to be the manna mentioned in urine disappears in time and finally Exodus 16:31 of the Bible. The lichen exudes a violet like scent. If not fixed by forms small round pebble growths that mordants, the colours quickly dull to a are easily disturbed and blow around by pale brown in sunlight. the wind. They swell in morning dew Ochrolechia oregonensis, which grows and are edible. with little pink discs on the rough bark Iwatake (Umbilicaria esculenta or of conifers, gives a violet, purple dye, Gyrophora esculenta) or "stone and is somewhat plentiful. mushroom" is collected in the The Cree used Dicranum lichen for mountains of Japan and exported to lampwicks, and various Umbilicaria China as a luxury item. Properly species for food. Other lichens, such as prepared, it resembles tripe. As food, the Snow Bed Iceland, were simply used the bitter constituents were neutralized in northern Alberta and the North West by soda ash from fires to lessen stomach Territories as a hot burning tinder. irritation. The blacker the lichen, the Throughout the years, they have been lesser the content of usnic acid, part of used for medicine, food and beer the irritation. Moo Sung Kim et al. (J. making. Ethnopharm. 105: 3) found the lichen A thriving brandy‐making industry in possesses anti‐thrombotic properties Sweden and Russia went bankrupt in due to anti‐platelet activity. The same the 19th century when the lichen supply author has identified the ability to was exhausted. One kilogram of lichen reduce melanin in human melanoma was needed to produce one‐half litre of cells and inhibit tyrosinase glycosylation alcohol. In France, today, lichens are (J. Microbiol. 45: 6). used in the production of chocolates, The lichens were often assigned using the lichen as a filler and substitute medicinal properties based on the for starch. doctrine of signatures. After all, lichen fibre is composed A lichen resembling lungs was used for mainly of mannose, galactose and respiratory complaints, for example. glucose, with each species having An unidentified black lichen known to different make‐ups. Cetraria and the Paiute as KAWA SIIN, or Packrat Alectoria spp., for example, contain Urine, was scraped off rocks and boiled significantly more glucose than Cladina as a liquor for treating venereal disease. and Stereocaulon spp; which in turn Highly prized in medieval Europe were contain much more mannose and lichens that grew on bare skulls, for galactose. epilepsy. The demand was so heavy and This higher glucose level is reflected in profitable for this "heady" medicine higher lichenan content, making these (mucus cranii humani) that collectors devised methods to paste the skull and studies could be carried out on Lepraria cultivate lichens. spp. in our region of the world. Natives of northern Canada With two notable exceptions, the incorporated both Alectoria and Bryoria lichens of our area are not poisonous. into clothing. It was interwoven with You must be wary of the big, bad Wolf cedar or silverberry bark to make vests, Lichen (Letharia vulpina), a bright yellow leggings and moccasins. Although not lichen, and Powdered Sunshine very durable in wet weather, it was (Vulpicida penastri) a lemon‐yellow used by those who could not obtain lichen. They contain pinastric and furs, or as part of ceremonies. vulpinic acids, both extremely Tanning, perfumery, and even poisonous; and previously mixed with powdered wigs relied on lichens. ground glass, nails and nux vomica to kill Architects and model railroad buffs use wolves. There is no record in North glycerin soaked lichens for model trees. America of using these lichens for this Lichens are used for "sizing" in book‐ purpose; however, the Achomawai of binding for applying gold leaf and northern California soaked their colour; and fabric industries for filling arrowheads in the wet lichen for an pores in the surface of paper and fibre. entire year, sometimes combined with Lichens are used in funeral decorations, rattlesnake venom, to make the tips as they will last for several weeks at the poisonous to game. grave. Both have been used for the brilliant The great mystery in the chemistry of yellow dyes they produce; the coastal lichens is their "secondary compounds", Tlingit and Haida Gwaii trading fish oils which are not by‐products of normal for the lichen to colour their spruce root plant metabolism. Because of the baskets and dancing blankets. Emmons, energy required to produce them, in the Chilkat Blanket of 1907, said that scientists speculate they must have the moss was boiled in the fresh urine important value. of children. During World War II, both the Germans Interior people boiled the lichen in and Americans investigated lichens for water and then soaked their buckskins, their antibiotic potential, and found horsehair, porcupine quills or mountain over 50% of species tested showing goat's wool. The Huna of northern activity. Over 700 secondary lichen California used it to dye Bear Grass substances have been identified, with (Xerophyllum tenax). new compounds being described all the The Okanagan Colville boiled it on time.