In some of the photographs of the rocks (sometimes they were in the background) you had on this website, were some oddly coloured mold, plant or lichens. What is that, how does it survive, what does it do?
The substance that you might have noticed is indeed a lichen. There are thousands of different species of lichen. Most are edible. Chewy, but edible in most cases. Please, do not run outside and grab a handful and eat it! As a matter of fact, Samuel Hearne’s exploration party that was in Churchill could have lived longer, but many perished (died) from scurvy. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C. If the men had known that the lichen were high in vitamin C content they just might have lived a little longer! Lichens are a cross between a plant and a fungus. They can grow on almost anything (like rocks and trees and rotting materials). Even in the arctic they grow, very slowly, but they grow. A patch found here in the subarctic about the size of a U.S. quarter might be as much as 100 years of growth. They grow so slowly due to the temperatures and winds. The niche or job of the lichen is to break things down. Growing on rock, the job is to eventually decompose the rock into soil. It wi
Related Questions
- In some of the photographs of the rocks (sometimes they were in the background) you had on this website, were some oddly coloured mold, plant or lichens. What is that, how does it survive, what does it do?
- Can you recommend anything else that might survive on the bubble tip side of the fence so to speak that will help cover the rocks and provide a nice backdrop apart from the algae on the rocks?
- Can the plant survive the wintertime?
