Little Lichens on the Prairie @ St. John's University
Little Lichens on the Prairie
St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN hosted a week-long class for MN Master Naturalist class for Prairies and Potholes biome, August 7-11, 2023.
It was an opportunity to work with students to promote and develop the MN Master Naturalists Lichen Map Project and to sketch out a Lichen Trail on the Chapel Trail in the St. John’s University Arboretum, using data from the project. MN Master Naturalist, Kerri A. Meyer wrote this summary of the Capstone project-
LICHEN LOOKING: The nature-based pastime you didn’t know you were missing
By Kerri A. Meyer
Promoting the Lichen Map to our kindred Naturalists:
• Lichens are everywhere. We’re always looking at them but rarely seeing them.
• Lichens are tiny, varied landscapes, just as compelling to observe and photograph as wildflowers in spring or foliage in autumn.
• You already know all that you need to know to be a Lichen Looker. Just start by being a Lichen Liker! Enjoy spotting them, getting the coolest photo of them that you can, and sharing that image with experts who know how to identify them.
About the Monastery Cemetery as a Lichen Looking spot:
• Many lichen-friendly substrates are present: wood, metal, living trees, granite, marble, concrete.
• The grounds are not managed with fertilizer, keeping nitrogen levels moderate and comfortable for lichens.
• Oldest graves are not scrubbed regularly, so colonies are thriving on some headstones
• We found lichens on fallen twigs (four flavors on one four-inch section of oak) and on an old propane tank (what looked like flaking paint and rust was actually a bunch of lichen colonies!)
What we learned about the HOW-TO of Lichen Looking:
• Sunshine doesn’t make it easier to observe or document them. Choose a shady spot or cloudy day.
• Water DOES make it easier, and does amazing things to their natural color, so bring along a bottle of tap water.
• You want to see these organisms close up, so bring a field lens or a smartphone.
• Be ready to sit. You’ll be fascinated, and they don’t run off. Plus, sitting keeps your lens steadier!
• To take a photo, you can use just the zoom feature on your smartphone, or you can hold your phone camera up to your field lens (this takes some practice) or you can purchase a clip-on macro lens for your phone.
• While it’s not true that lichens grow only on the north sides of trees and boulders, it is the case for many moisture-loving and shade-loving species that the north sides are more hospitable.
• Look closely, because there’s a good chance that right next to the lichen you liked, there’s another species or two hanging out unnoticed! We call ‘em “Lichen Parties”. You’re invited.
• When you find a cool lichen, take your close-up, but then take a couple of wider-angle shots so that you can remember the lichen in context.
What we learned about the Lichens themselves:
• We like ‘em!
• Lichens are symbiotic collaborations between two or more organisms:
o Often a fungus and an alga
o Frequently a fungus and a cyanobacterium
o Sometimes even a fungus, an alga, and a cyanobacterium
• There are 19,000 varieties of lichens, because you can mix more of these organisms in different arrangements than you can toppings on pizza
• Lichens come in three (?) major categories:
o leafy-looking (foliose),
o crusty-looking (crustose), and
o hairy-looking (fruticose)
• Lichens have fruiting bodies, like other fungal things. The fruiting bodies release spores for reproduction. They’re also super cute.
• While lichens are not themselves destructive (they’re not killing your tree, your tree is dying), they are the very first living agent in the recipe for creating new soil. They can cleave rocks!
• While some lichens like sharing space, others release allelopathic chemicals to reduce competition from cousins.
• Scientists can draw on lichens to date young (<500 years old) objects, like gravestones.
• Dry lichens are in survival mode. Lichens want water.
• Scrubbing surfaces (bricks, stones, other hardscaping) destroys lichens. As Kenton put it, buildings that “look clean, look dead.”
Participate in the Minnesota Lichen Map Project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/minnesota-lichen-map
Join The British Lichen Society:
https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/
