argoskier, Author at Stowe Forager

What is Lichen? (Why I’m Liking Lichen)

What is lichen? Great question, I’m glad you asked – for lichen is a bit of a strange thing.

What is Lichen?

First of all, let’s identify what lichen looks like. It’s that strange crust-like substance that forms on rocks and trees in the forest. You see it all the time, but it hardly gets any recognition. It is almost always a bluish greenish or orange – yellow color.

Lichen is very slow growing, and yet it covers 6% of the Earth’s surface! There are nearly 200,000 species of lichen and they are found just about everywhere. From the frigid arctic tundra to the hot dry deserts, and everywhere in between. Scientists believe that lichens may be some of the oldest living things on the planet and have dated one to 8,600 years old, making it the Earth’s oldest living thing!

OK, but what IS Lichen?!?

Right, so now that we have talked about lichen, and we can all agree we do know what it is. As in if I took you out into the woods here in the Green Mountains of Vermont and asked you to find me some lichen, you probably would eventually find the lichen. I don’t think you would confuse it with a plant or a mushroom.

But what IS lichen?!? OK, at this point you may be wondering why I keep asking that even tho it would seem we have already identified what lichen is. Have we though? Is lichen a plant? No. Is lichen a fungus? Nope. Is lichen a bacteria? Nuh-uh. Well, actually, it is all of the above and none of the above.

You see, this is getting weird right? Lichen is what’s known as a composite organism. This mean it is not just one organism or species, and is made up of two or more. Lichen is most often made up of a fungus, and a photosynthetic cyanobacteria. The fungus helps protect the bacteria, and the bacteria makes energy for the fungus from the sun – just like a plant. Often, a third or fourth species, such as yeast, will also be present among the lichen – further complicating things.

So then, I think we can easily enough understand what a lichen is. It is an entity that is made up of 2 or more species (at least one fungus, and at least one photosynthetic bacteria) that live together in a mutualistic way. The problem is that you can’t really call a lichen a species, or even an organism for that matter.

Even the scientific community sort of hit a roadblock on how to classify lichen. They DO sort and identify different lichens by calling them different species names, and yet at that same time recognize and caution that they are not actually species. This is just funny to me, and a great example of science failing to control nature.

Why I’m liking Lichen

I’m liking lichen particularly right now because it is stick season (see last post) in Stowe Vermont. As I wrote about in the last post, perhaps stick season’s most distinct characteristic is the greyness of it all.

Yet among all this grey, there remains one vibrant source of color. This strange thing (it is not an organism or species), somehow persists and finds its time to shine. Indeed, I challenge you to find anything brighter than a lichen during the cold Vermont November. And that is why I’m liking lichen right now – it is a light, when all else is dark.

what is lichen in vermont — Lichen on moss

… And Then Came Stick Season

Autumn Is Beautiful But Brief in Stowe Vermont

Autumn is a very short season in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Here in Stowe, it seems to last about 3 weeks. Each week is packed to the brim with activity, and the small mountain town is in a constant state of hustle and bustle. Thousands and thousands of tourists come to Stowe, VT looking for things to do and sights to see.

As much as all the tourists can be annoying to any local, It’s not as though I can’t understand the madness. Autumn in the Green Mountains is an absolutely breathtaking event to witness. The tourists bring money to the local economy and the town buzzes with the collected humanity. And then, all of a sudden, It’s over.

Foliage Autumn Stowe Vermont — Autumn Leaves

And Then There is Stick Season

After about three weeks of decent foliage, with one week being the definitive peak, everything changes. Here in the Green Mountains of Vermont we enter our 5th season: Stick Season. Where does the name come from? You guessed it: when the leaves have all fallen, all that is left are the naked branches. Essentially just waiting for their fate of becoming a stick!

So stick season is defined by the lack of leaves, but also i is defined by what it is not. It is not winter. There is no snow. Well maybe a flurry, or maybe Mount Mansfield or Stowe Mountain Resort will get a good coating here and there and a gaggle of ski bums will hike up to ski down.

It is cold like winter and the temperature no longer feels like fall. Without the snow or leaves, and with the cold temperatures, there is nothing to do. Eventually the tourists get the hint as the restaurants and shops close up for the month before Thanksgiving and the town gets a glimpse of solitude.

What Is There To Do During Stick Season?

Nothing. There really is not much to do, and that is what makes stick season special to me. I find it as a much needed break from the madness. I sometimes call it meditation season because I find it is a great time (if not the only time) of year for me to really focus on mental health, spirituality, and meditation.

I do enjoy going for a walk or hike during stick season (duh, I am the Stowe Forager after all). But I will say that there really is not much to see. Everything is grey, all the time. And I mean everything. All the plants, the trees, the sky, the ground, the water – just everything, grey.

But there is some sort of mystic beauty in all this grey. As Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows once said: grey is my favorite color. There is something incredibly grounding about the color, and so too, about stick season in Stowe, Vermont.

Foraging or Photographing?

I find that on my regular foraging walks, it becomes much harder to find anything edible. Sure there are still some things you can find and eat, maybe some late berries of some sort, or a tuber root. And it can be fun to find these things, as it is quite hard to do, so perhaps more rewarding.

But for me, I just don’t really enjoy foraging for the things I can find during stick season, so it sort of ends up marking the end of my foraging season. I do find that I really enjoy take photos. I feel less pressure to get a good shot, as there is very little actually calling out for attention.

Instead I find myself becoming more creative with my photography. Taking strange photos of strange things, and maybe giving them a fun edit after. And that is stick season in Stowe Vermont. The Green Mountains of Vermont, but in grey.

Go Walk in The Woods

Whenever I am feeling down, confused, or directionless, there is one thing that I can always do to cheer up. Go walk in the woods. For me, there is nothing else quite like it. Living in Stowe Vermont, I do feel blessed for all the beauty around me. The Green Mountain State is majestic, and to not forage this kingdom of wilderness regularly, would surely be a mistake.

A walk in the woods is a sensual experience like no other. As I have talked about in previous posts, putting yourself into the wilderness taps into your ancestral past. A past where humans have spent most of their time on this planet – the wild. For me, nothing is more sensual than this. The sights, smells, sounds, feels, and delicious tastes of the wild awaken my soul like nothing else can.

If you are reading this and thinking I am exaggerating, or perhaps just crazy, you are wrong. At least about the first part. I can prove it to you. How? Go walk in the woods! Walk slowly, and try to fully absorb all of your surroundings. Become aware of life around you. The insects, rodents, birds, plants, trees, and mushrooms. Breathe it in.

The Inherent Joy in the Act of Discovery

See the big picture out here. How it is all connected. Then narrow your focus. Eyes zoning in on a particular patch of forest. In just one square foot of wilderness, there is enough life and peculiarities to keep you in discovery mode for awhile. Feel that joy inherent in the act of discovery.

On my most recent walk through the Green Mountains of Vermont, I had no real plan of what I was doing. I was driving around near Camels Hump State forest, looking for interesting places to pull over. Once I found a suitable place, I would pick a direction and just walk into the wilderness.

After joyfully wandering around for an hour or so, I finally came across something edible. Bear’s Head. A tooth fungus that has the texture of crab meat and looks like something out of a scifi movie. After taking plenty of cellphone photos and staring at the thing for 10 minutes, I picked one of the two, and returned to the truck.

I drove further down the dirt road until some new spot would call my attention. A nice pull off, with some flat woods stretching out into the distance. Not too long in I came across the most gorgeous Oyster Mushrooms I have ever seen. The white mushrooms gripping to the bright green moss covered log, flowing like sails, and covered in fall foliage.

Not all Who Wander Are Lost…

I picked a dozen or so and left the rest to be. Wandering around a bit more, I made my way back to the truck, stopping to grab 3 honey mushrooms on the way. I very much like foraging for a few different kinds of mushrooms, and would much rather have a handful of diverse mushrooms to cook up than a whole basket full of one species.

Just before getting into the truck, I spotted a tiny reishi mushroom within a foot of a birch polypore. I took this as a sign of some sort and decided to take the two of them to make a tiny batch of tea.

Driving down the dirt road back towards Stowe an overwhelming feeling of contentment swept over me. So much so that I actually had to think about what in the world was making me feel so content. Was it all these wonderful mushrooms from the forage? Was it the joy inherent in the act of discovery I had felt? The sheer beauty of the Green Mountains of Vermont in autumn?

Truth is, I have no idea, and it probably was a combination of these things. All I know is that a simple walk in the woods has the power to change moods. With a simple forage as the only goal, a wander through the wilderness, without a trail, seems to be a guaranteed way to reset yourself from the pressures of everyday life.