Alectoria sarmentosa
Common Witch’s Hair
ALECTORIACEAE, The Witch’s hair family
I used to call this lichen “the light green hangy kind.” Or “old man’s beard.”
When I started to identify them and find out what they are really called I was astounded and amused. Lichenologists may seem like a dry bunch, but there must be some kind of outrageous humor among those cobwebs. My first plant taxonomy professor’s specialty was lichens, and he spent more time telling us about penguins that he saw on his lichen study trips to the Antarctic than about plant biology. Really, the penguins worked their way into every lecture. Oh, and he wore plaid wool suits. Green, yellow, blue, even purple, never mismatched, but almost always plaid.
Anyhow, Lichens: Speckled Horsehair. Blood-spattered beard. Devil’s matchstick. Fishnet. Tickertape bone. Laundered rag. Questionable rock-frog. Pimpled kidney. Frog pelt. Punctured rocktripe. Pencilscript. Bark barnacle. Forking bone. Sea tar.
I am not making these up, they come from scientific books. They sound so naughty! Deer and other animals eat some of these, and Native Americans used them for dye, clothing, ceremonial decorations and various other purposes. Hummingbirds use lichen on their nests. The nest in the photo is a larger bird’s, that I photographed near Tilamook.
Witch’s hair lichen hangs from tree branches in moist forests. It does produce spores, though Alectoria means ‘unmarried’, implying it doe not. Mostly it spreads though by pieces being broken off and spread around the forest by people pretending they are toupees or mermaid hair.
