The next time you are walking through the pine scrub forests surrounding our area, take a look at what’s clinging to the tree. Collectors are hopeful a rare type of lichen that could have gone extinct may still be in the woods.
Only 32 known specimens have been collected from North and Central Florida scrubland between 1885 and 1985.
Recommended Videos
It may be that the elusive species is forever lost.
“The million-dollar question is ‘Where is this lichen?’” said Laurel Kaminsky, a digitization manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “The optimist in me says it’s still out there.”
What to look for is a light gray appearance when dry. But it could be a different color since specimens turn a deep blue-green and bleed a reddish-brown pigment when wet in a laboratory setting.
To make the hunt more challenging, there are no photos or detailed descriptions of the lichen in nature and scientists don’t yet know how it reacts to moisture in the wild.
New DNA analysis has shown original collectors misidentified the species. Biologists call it the “Timucua heart lichen,” because it looks like a heart-shaped fungus about the size of a sand dollar with scalloped edges.
It differs from common wood-rotting fungi by its felty and papery texture along with curved lobes and a cracked underside.
Lichens are slow-growing and can live for centuries in a variety of habitats.
They are completely different from mosses or plants because they do not have any roots, stems or leaves.
What’s so important about lichens? They scrub the air by removing heavy metals and pollutants like carbon or sulfur and help create soil by decomposing plants.
If you see any interesting organisms be sure to take a photo but leave the specimen in place. Any information that can help researchers can be uploaded here.