This picture is a detail of a QuickTime panorama in the World Wide Panorama (WWP) September 2007 event, with the theme "Sustenance", opening 2007, October 8. The lichens (generally called locally "deer moss") come in at least three types,
- 1.) light gray puffs (Cladonia evansii, powder-puff lichen or deer moss. A reindeer lichen),
- 2.) larger, yellower clumps (Cladonia subtenuis, dixie reindeer lichen. A reindeer lichen), and
- 3.) red-fruiting, thicker-stemmed sprawls (Cladonia leporina, jester lichen, not upright and with smaller red caps than British Soldiers (Cladonia cristatella)).
My identification of the three species is tentative. At least two forms appear in pictures on this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladonia_rangiferina) where they are treated as one, C. rangiferina. That page tells about people who eat deer lichens. Les Stroud in his TV program (http://www.survivorman.ca) in Norway or Labrador uses reindeer moss to make tea. Bear Grylls, in his program Man Vs. Wild, in Iceland, says reindeer moss looks like tiny deer antlers. He eats some. In 2009 I made a call for indentification. Other informative pages are listed in links and links to the book Lichens of North America.
To
see puffs, clumps, or sprawls, mouseover the image
For info, click (see bullets above)
Deer lichen site 3.4. See other Wholeo World Wide Panorama entries. Back to Deer lichens to eat, litter, or evolve.
