Resources for understanding and identifying lichens in the Pacific Northwest

Almost at the end of this series-- what better way to finish than with the most complex and diverse group in the bunch. Lichens have long been the enigmas of photosynthetic life. Treated in turns as plants and algae and fungi, they are now classified based on their fungal component, but widely treated as diverse commensal-to-symbiotic communities consisting of fungal partner(s) (typically an ascomycete but sometimes a basidiomycete) and "photobiont(s)", a photosynthetic algae and/or bacterial living within or about those fungal tissues. Recent work has shown that there can be a lot more going on, with basidiomycetous yeasts occuring within ascomycetous thalli alongside non-photosynthetic bacteria. The following resources I have found useful in making sense of all of this while looking at lichens in the Pacific Northwest.

Books (offline and occasionally online)

Online Resources

  • Common Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest
    https://lichens.twinferntech.net/pnw/index.shtml
    A spectacular and visual online guide to the major macrolichens in the PNW by Bruce McCune and Sunia Yang. Includes a multi-entry search for species by numerous macroscopic features.

  • Ways of Enlichenment
    https://www.waysofenlichenment.net/
    The product of numerous lichenologists but brought together by Trevor Goward's vision of a lichen guide for the region, this is a gallery of hundreds of micro and macrolichen species in the region organized by growth form, informal group, formal groups, genera and species. 11,000 photos. It also includes a link to Bruce Ryan's Working Keys for Lichens of North America, which is a bottomless resource if you want to really dig into different genera (in different habitats).

  • Willa Noble's Thesis on Lichens of the Coastal Douglas Fir Zone
    https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0095921
    Comprehensive treatment of all lichens in the Coastal Douglas Fir Zone that dominates the southern coast of BC and the northern coasts of Washington State. A great (free!) reference with keys to genera and species. Taxomony is somewhat dated, but that can be addressed with a simple search after you have tried to figure something out.

  • Lichen Portal
    https://lichenportal.org/cnalh/collections/map/index.php
    The central repository to look at the distribution, diversity and taxonomy of lichens. Map based searches are helpful to make checklists and compare your collections with those made previously in your region of interest. You can search by family, genus, species, collector et al.

  • Maritime Lichens Website
    http://www.lichensmaritimes.org/index.php?task=introduction&lang=en
    This website is based in Europe but really digs into the nuts and bolts of lichen zonation in maritime regions, complete with abundant photos for hundreds or maritime-to-maritime-adjacent species.

  • A webtool for measuring Cortex, Medulla and Axis ratios for Usnea
    https://welliam.github.io/measure-cma/
    This tool was developed by iNaturalist user @wweellll as a simple way to calculate the ratio/proportions of cortex, medulla and central axis in relationship to overall diameter in Usnea.

Lichen equipment

  • The NW Lichenologists website has a bunch of information about sourcing materials for studying lichens.
  • The only thing I will add is that lichens are made somehow more colourful by the use of UV light and chemicals. I use a 40$ 10W, 365nm UV flashlight that makes lichens (and liverworts) come alive with diagnostic colours.
  • You can use household bleach for "C" solution when you encounter it in keys. K and Pd are harder to come by. You can order KOH crystals online and mix them 10g to 100ml of water, but Pd is very hard to come by.
  • When collecting crustose lichens, a long blade (knife, multitool, razor) will help for epiphytes.
  • For crustose species on rock, you are likely going to need a big hammer and a big chisel and may the kitty gods help you if the rock is smooth and round.

Like the other entries in this series, if you have more that you think should be added, comment below and I will try and add it in a future edit.

Posted on January 4, 2023 04:42 AM by rambryum rambryum

Comments

A few slightly random thoughts on some of the reactants. After doing some digging, it seems Pd is an ingredient in lots of hair dyes (cheap on ebay), some with few other ingredients. I'm not sure what the extraction process would be like but it might be possible to just do some kind of solvent extraction. I can't seem to find the pure compound for sale, except from sigma-aldrich, where it is not exactly cheap but not as ludicrous as it could be (although not sure if they'd ship to a random individual). Judging from what I can find, it looks like one can use sodium hydroxide drain cleaner (should be findable at a hardware store) as a substitute for K, since all those reactions require is a strong base. Not sure if this is of any use to anybody else, but I'll be tinkering with it myself if I get the time.

Posted by jbindernagel about 1 year ago

@jbindernagel NW Lichenologists recommends the Photographer's Formulary for Pd reagent. They sell 10g for $7 plus shipping. I successfully ordered Pd & KOH from them in early 2022.
https://stores.photoformulary.com/p-phenylenediamine-class-6-1-ground-ups-only-choose-ups-ground-at-checkout/

edit: Sorry, just realized that may not help you since they don't ship reagents to Canada

Posted by lumenal about 1 year ago

@lumenal Worth trying and thanks for the heads up. I can get them to ship to a relative in Bellingham who'll mail it up here.

Maybe....

Posted by jbindernagel about 1 year ago

An alternative for P I've read about but not tried myself (I'm still working through the small amount I got from Photograher's Foundry) is a film color developer, CD4. It seems to be more widely available (for example on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/192182397167).

It's prepared by combining the CD4 (0.64g) with anhydrous sodium sulphite (2g-- this is also easily found) dissolved in water (20ml).

The British Lichen Society suggested this alternative in this bulletin from 1987: https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/bulletins/BLS%20Bulletin%2060%20Summer%201987.pdf page 31 (PDF page 33). They compared results with P:
Fumarprotocetraric acid (Cladonia ochrochlora): CD4+R, P+R
Thamnolic acid (C. pertricosa): CD4+R, P+Y (I've read this is P+O)
Psorommic acid (C. subpityrea): CD4+O, P+Y
Norstictic acid (Baeomyces heteromorphus): CD+O, P+Y (I've read this is P+O)
Baeomycesic acid (B. fungoides): CD+O-R, P+Y
Physciosporin (Pseudocyphellaria physciospora): CD+O, P+O
Pannarin fulvescens: CD+O-R, P+O

In addition to being (a little) easier to find, CD4 is also (possibly) less dangerous than P (which is a suspected carcinogen) and is colorless and doesn't oxidize as easily. P is not very fun to work with: if you don't have great ventilation while preparing it with ethanol little bits will stain paper and such black. You also have to prepare it fresh and clean up every time you use it. Whatever you mop it up with you have to store double sealed to make sure it doesn't get everywhere. There's a preparation of P called "Steiner's solution" which is somewhat stable but even that goes bad by oxidation after a few months.

The downside of CD4 is obviously that this doesn't seem to be commonly used at all, so resources about reactions with more species are nonexistent. On the bright side, P seems to only really produce a couple reactions; I think Daphne Stone said in a video that it's either pale yellow from atranorin, bright "fire hydrant" yellow, or some variation of orange to red, which seems to depend more on the concentration of P than anything. CD4 is probably positive wherever P is positive as I imagine the chemical reactions are similar.

Posted by wweellll 3 months ago

Add a Comment

Sign In or Sign Up to add comments

Gracias al apoyo de:

¿Quiere apoyarnos? Pregúntenos cómo escribiendo a snib.guatemala@gmail.com