This involves either steeping the lichen in several batches of water (discard the water after each soak) – adding bicarbonate of soda helps to leach acids because it is alkaline – or simmering the lichen for 15 minutes, discarding the water and repeating.īeing quite tough and fibrous, this is a wild edible that lends itself to soaking, simmering and long stewing. It’s just necessary to do the proper preparation. They contain acids (which help them live off rock and wood) which can cause gastric upset.ĭon’t be too put off by this – lichens have been used as food and medicine as long as there have been people. Also consider the pollution load the lichens you harvest may hold, particularly if you are foraging in a relatively urban area. There are relatively few truly poisonous lichens that cannot be made safe by proper preparation (see below), and the two genuses known to be high in the toxic vulpinic and usnic acids are yellow. Other Cladonia species can be quite similar, but are not toxic. Spring and Autumn are the times of highest growth due to the higher humidity – this is part fungus afterall! It is best to take the tops off of clumps, leaving the lichen base to regenerate.Ĭould Be Confused With, and Other Safety Notes:
In habitats where Reindeer live, this lichen forms a major part of their diet.Īvailable throughout the year. This lichen grows 3 to 11 mm each year, meaning that what can be harvested in a couple of seconds may have taken a decade to form. Ideally choose not to unless it is enormously abundant. It can be found on heathland.Ĭonsider whether you really need to harvest lichen. It tends to grow to about 8cm high.Ībundant in the Arctic regions, so in the UK only to be found in the high altitude and northerly regions where it gets properly cold. Reindeer moss looks like a tiny forest of pale green reindeer antlers that grow in tufts. It looks quite mossy, but mosses are often much wetter than lichens. While it is colloquially known as a moss, this is actually a lichen, which is a symbiont of at least one fungus and one alga, but researchers keep finding more partners. Reindeer lichen, Reindeer cup lichen, Grey reindeer lichen, Caribou moss, Deer moss
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