Ruud Kleinpaste: Lichen in your Garden

This is a regular complaint from gardeners: Lichen on the stems of our shrubs, trees and bark. In this case: Julie’s treasured Magnolias. 

It kind of makes sense as the shrub or small tree often appears to have more lichen than leaves – mostly smallish buds, not large, impressive flowers. And few leaves that often look small and somewhat discoloured. 

No wonder gardeners are concerned about Lichen! 

Here are the identified species of lichen on our Magnolia: Cartilage Lichen and Common Sunburst Lichen. 

Lichen do not live in or from the plants – they don’t invade the plants or steal nutrients, they just sit there on the branches in the sun. Often the more light or sun there is, the healthier the lichens are. 

Gardeners often think that the plants’ lack of health is due to the presence of lichen but a far more accurate diagnosis is exactly the opposite. Shrubs and trees which are not in the most perfect place (with the best sun or shade) or with a minimal amount of healthy fertilisers or moisture are struggling to keep their growth rates in maximum condition. 

The lichen simply takes advantage of increased sun and light. 

Here is just one example that shows how lichen (in this case many different species) literally establish themselves on tiled roofs. The lichen do not have “roots” to get inside the tiles, or “feed” from the tiles. They therefore don’t damage the surface they live on. 

Lichen is not a plant, but a symbiosis of two or three organisms that work together: fungi and blue-green algae (often Cyanobacteria) and yeasts. The fungus can store water for “the TEAM” and is the home of the algae. The algae can do photosynthesis and shares the sugars with the fungi. They all work together for the past 600 million years on Earth 

“WHEN LIFE CAME OUT OF THE OCEAN… THERE WAS LICHEN!” 

These lichen grow on metal, windscreen glass, and asphalt – known as Sexy Pavement Lichen. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Rude, Clive passes our man in the garden. He's with
us this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey Rude, Hey Jack, have you got lichens on your plants?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I've got lichens, lichens on on the on the trunks
of my trees. And and yes, my trees do remain
or you remember the benefew dramas or the trees at
my place. But for example, the Bohoda Kawa has lots
of lichen on the on its trunk. So yeah, but
I never really think about it. Ah, It's one of
those things you sort of know, Yeah, unless you actually

(00:41):
slow down and observe it, you often kind of just
glance by and don't even notice it.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, that's that's one of the things. The other thing
is that I've actually started looking at these things at
night with a UV torch. I mean, it's just I
just making this up because this is what I do. Sometimes,
go outside, you got your UV torch on, and you
look at the lichens, which are always gray gray blue
or greeny gray blue type thing. Right, But when you

(01:08):
look under UV, suddenly one of them will turn orange. Yeah, right,
And another one yellow, and another one blue. It's just buzarre.
So they've they've kind of interested me for the last
few years a little bit. But recently, of course, Julie,
Julie's got this magnolio which is full of this stuff.

(01:29):
And it was, of course like, what are we going
to do about this? This doesn't look good. The plant's
not doing well, not enough flowers. What can you get
rid of that? Well, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, so
I started looking into that sort of stuff too, and
then realized that that those lichens, of course they're not

(01:51):
by the way, they're not plants at all. They are
a completely different group of great jewels Christian.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, So do they use photosynthesis or how do they
how do they get energy and restore energy? And how
do they grow?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, first of all, they're made up of say two
or three different things fungus, a fungus, a blue green
algae or a cyanobacteria, and sometimes a third one is
a yeast. And the cold thing is the fungi are
basically the ones that can store water, right. The algae can't.

(02:27):
They quite often dry out. So what the fungus does?
It says, you know what here's some of my water.
And then the algie says, you know, you know what,
not a big deal. I can do photosynthesis and I'll
send you some sugars from my photosynthesis if you give
me water. And the same with the yeast. It comes
in there as well. So basically what you're looking at

(02:49):
here is basically a fabulous collaboration of two or three
different creatures that live on the trunk.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
So to be totally clear, is it a standalone creature,
is it like in a standalone creature? Is it a
living thing or is it just no.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yes, it's a living thing, but it's made from three
different partners. If that like a cloth, you go, yes, exactly.
So we'll talk about we'll talk a little bit about
it in another in another episode. But for instance, in
the Netherlands, we did not have many likens because there
was too much pollution in the air. And the reason

(03:27):
is very simple that the lican can't stand that pollution
and therefore is not very common there on the tree trunks.
It's crazy. That's what I know about, and that's how
I learned everything on forestry too. But anyway, so so
Julie says, look, this is this is it. I said, well, look,
but these things work together. She says, yeah, but don't
you see this plant looking really silly. I said, yes,

(03:50):
it does a little bit, but you have to remember
that basically, the funny thing is that it's not that
the plant is invading the tree. Now, it just lives
on top. It doesn't have roots in the trees or
anything like. They just sit there on the branches. And
it's basically because maybe that plant that we planted is
not in the right place, so it gives you fewer

(04:13):
leaves more light. And then this liken says, that's a
place where I want to live.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
That's really interesting. Yeah, yeah, it's really neat.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
It's really neat. So, for instance, I've got a whole
lot of pictures as you can see there, for instance,
lichens growing on people's roofs, but also li likeens growing
on a really old car window. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Think I've got a window with some liking on it
probably needs a bit of attention. Actually, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
And here comes the nicest thing for next time. That
name of that liking is sexy pavement Likens sixty. Yeah,
I know you'd love this. You have to wait, I'll
do it another day.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
I don't know that I never heard the term sixy
and pavement next to each other like that, but anyway,
I again wrote thank you road climb hast in the
garden for us.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine a m. Saturday,
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