Lichen

Posted in Farm on Wednesday 15th February 2017 at 11:38am

Lichens are a close partnership between a fungus and an alga which is interwoven to appear as a single individual organism. They come in many and varied forms. The picture shows a good example of beard and hair lichens in abundance on our trees just below Old Walls house. Lichen absorb water and minerals from rainwater and directly from the atmosphere, over their entire area. Different species grow in more polluted areas, e.g. industrial sites, than grow in our beautifully clean air on Dartmoor. As a general rule the greener the lichen the cleaner the air, the more yellow varieties the more polluted the air. One interesting fact about lichen is that the litmus dye used so widely as an acid/alkaline indicator in chemistry comes from lichens.