Along the trail, there is a line formed by several rocky hills parallel to the trail. The spruces on these rocky hills have wonderful long beard lichens. There are beard lichens right at face height, but also in the upper branches of the trees. But are these beard liches or Bryoria fuscescens? There are about a dozen beard liches in Finland and almost twenty Bryorias. However, the differences between the species are very small and separating them is sometimes very challenging. Can you recognize what you see below?
Usnic acid gives the beard lichens a yellow color and that is why the beard liches are yellow-green. Usniic acid also comes from the Latin name Usnea. Beard lichens also have nice and descriptive names. Bryorias (Bryoria fuscescens) are often brown or grey-green.
Beard lichens and bryorias react to air pollution, which significantly weakened the living conditions beard lichens and bryorias around 40 years ago. Air quality started to improve in the 1980s when sulfur dioxide emissions were reduced. Beard lichens and bryorias are already appearing in several places and they are starting to grow as long as Santa's Claus beard.
Yes, and what do beard lichens have in common with sun lotions. The usnic acid in beard lichens absorbs UV radiation, and that's why usnic acid is used e.g. in sunlotions.
Do not remove beard lichens and bryorias from trees!
