Have you ever wondered what the neon tufts growing on our local junipers are? Then, join us for an illuminating evening about lichens! That neon green is actually a lichen: a fungus growing together with an alga to make a specialized growth form. Lichenologist Daphne Stone will take us on a tour of lichens: what they are, how they survive in diverse and often extreme habitats, and how they are different from other fungi. Then we will take a tour of interesting lichens around the Pacific Northwest, including lush lichens in coastal Oregon, lichens that fix nitrogen from the air in the Cascades, brilliant crustose lichens on rocks in dry areas, and delicate soil crust lichens that protect the deserts of eastern Oregon.

1. Lichens –
the Extreme
Fungi

2. What are lichens?
Where do they live?

5. Spanish moss
Bromeliad family

6. Letharia columbiana

15. Some lichen terms

16. thallus =
whole lichen

17. 3 main thallus shapes
foliose
fruticose
crustose

18. foliose =
leaf-like
Lobaria pulmonaria

19. Xanthoparmelia
Xanthoparmelia

20. Physcia adscendens

22. fruticose
= long or
bush-like

23. Ramalina
menziesii

24. Usnea
longissima

25. Cladonia spp.

27. Pilophorus acicularis
Pilophorus acicularis

28. crustose = paint-like

32. photo by
Douglas Vincent

33. Lichens are a symbiosis:
a fungus & a photobiont
sym=together
bio=life

34. fungus +
green alga

35. upper cortex
medulla
lower cortex
cross-section

36. photo by
Tom Robertson & Julie Biddle
fungal hyphae

37. fungus +
cyano-
bacteria

38. Peltigera praetextata
cross-section

39. photo by Tom Robertson & Julie Biddle

40. Peltigera
leucophlebia
fungus
+
green alga
+
cyanobacterium

41. Nostoc
(cyanobacterium)
Coccomyxa
(green alga)

42. Why are lichens Extreme fungi ?

43. how do they reproduce?
1. fungal spores
formed in apothecia

44. Apothecia

46. Letharia columbiana

47. sliced apothecium

52. to make a lichen, the spore
must find a photobiont
steal
adopt

53. how do they reproduce?
1. spores
formed in apothecia
2. special fragments
make clones

54. soredia

55. soredia

57. branched isidia

59. Why are lichens so great?
nutrient cycling: N fixation

60. Collema furfuraceumLeptogium sp..

61. thallus cross-section
cyanobacteria

62. near Golden Lake

64. Lobaria
oregana

66. Why are lichens so great?
nutrient cycling: N fixation
soil enrichment and protection

69. Psora cerebriformis

70. Collema tenax

71. Psora decipiens

72. Caloplaca erichansenii

73. Lecanora sp.,
Candelariella aggregata

75. Why are lichens so great?
nutrient cycling: N fixation
soil enrichment and protection
food web and nests

76. Cladonia spp.

78. Bryoria sp.

83. Photo by Stephen Sharnoff

84. Why are lichens so great?
nutrient cycling: N fixation
soil enrichment and protection
food web and nests
unusual chemistry

86. Evernia
prunastri
staghorn lichen

91. Usnea sp.

92. Why are lichens so great?
nutrient cycling: N fixation
soil enrichment and protection
food web and nests
unusual chemistry
bioindicators

97. Biomonitoring

98. no waxy cuticle
on cortex
medulla
nutrients
transfer
cell by cell

99. Unique physiology makes lichens
highly sensitive to pollutants and
changes in climate
-- nitrogen, sulfur and acidic deposition
-- climate change models
Lichens are virtually everywhere
--large or small scale sampling
Biomonitoring

100. FIA Lichen Indicator
in the Interior West region
• Over 750 plots surveyed
for lichen communities
(2001-2007):
AZ = 207
CO = 194
ID = 127
MT = 104
NV = 46
UT = 73

101. Air Quality
worst
best