Lichen + Moss

I didn't give much thought to lichen and moss before I moved to California, but now that I live here I've become slightly fascinated with both since we see them on all of our hikes. One of the things I love most about lichen and moss is their color range, from pale celery to pea green to flourescent chartreuse, they are a blast of unusual color that makes me happy to run into them on the trail. I love that yellow-green color so much I used it abundantly in my designs for the Juniper Ridge website and catalog. We frequently use mossy oak branches for display accents in our photos at work because moss and lichen have a beautiful simplicity that adds a calm, natural touch. Tom shot the picture above when we were celebrating my birthday a few years ago in Big Sur. I love the angle of the shot with the lichen gripping the side of a cliff and the ocean in the background.


The above photo was taken on a hike on Mt. Tam with Tom's parents when they came to visit a few years ago. It was an amazingly foggy day and everything was lush and green. The moss was dripping with condensation from the mist and it felt as if we were in a rain forest. It was on this hike that Sue, Tom's mom, explained to me how lichen works. It is actually two things at once that create a symbiotic existence as one--a fungus along with a photosynthetic buddy which is usually either green or blue-green algae. The fungus provides the water and minerals for the algae from whatever they are growing together on and the algae uses the minerals and water to make food for the fungus through photosynthesis. Thankfully, neither of them acts as a parasite and causes harm to the branch or rock on which they've chosen to make their happy home. It's a love affair of basic means.

Moss, on the other hand, is its own deal. Mosses are teeny, soft plants that grow in large green swaths in dark, damp areas. You often see them near ferns and other lush green plants in riparian zones. Mosses are non-vascular, so they have no roots, stems, or leaves, which is why they often look like fuzzy blankets covering entire surfaces. I love entering an area filled with moss while hiking. These places make me think of cozy animal dens, elves, red-capped mushrooms with white spots, and low-hooting owls. Once when I lived in France I visited a castle in Bavaria that looked out over the Black Forest. All I could think of were Hansel and Gretel and all the other fantastical forest stories I've read throughout my life (well, I was thinking a lot about Black Forest cake too). Natural places with lots of mosses and lichen bring a little of that childhood magic back into my grasp for some reason. There is a great shop in Berkeley that I love to peruse called Castle in the Air. It is full of all kinds of odd, crafty, foresty things, many from Germany. The Brothers Grimm would love it.

I'm getting off-point here, kind of. The last thing I want to mention is how great mosses and lichen can be for art projects. While Tom and I were wildcrafting in Oregon this summer we discovered a lichen called Usnea. Usnea is an epiphyte that looks a lot like Spanish moss and it was dangling from so many trees in the woods of Cave Junction that they all seem to have fine, pale green, wispy hair. We were told that Usnea has strong antifungal properties and you can boil up a batch of it to soak your feet in if you suffer from extreme athlete's foot. It's also very high in vitamin C. We didn't eat any, but we did harvest some to take home and were so in love with its delicate, soft texture that we wound up making a little diorama while camping in Humboldt on the way back to Berkeley. Below is a picture of our crew of Usnea-ites travelling through the countryside. Their heads are made of Redwood pine cones and their limbs made of small sticks we found on the forest floor. When we have more time we hope to do more of these nature-inspired dioramas.


That's all I have to say for now about my mild obsession with mosses and lichen. Hopefully I've encouraged you to go out and find what types grow near you!