Light grayish green lichens known as Old Man’s Beard hang from the trees in the forests. Sometimes blown onto the ground on windy days, to the touch, these lichens are usually soft but sometimes stiff in dry weather. A few are streaked with brown.
Old Man’s Beard is frequently found in clean, moist environments such as boggy woods. Though it prefers to cling to coniferous trees in old growth forests, it also hangs from the younger birches in my backyard. Sensitive to air pollution, it’s often found with other types of lichens, such as the foliose lichens shown below.
Canada’s native people harvested Old Man’s Beard long ago and added it to their diet. It can be steamed or dried and pummeled into a powder. A strong antibiotic, it was also used to prevent infection and gangrene from setting into external wounds. A thousand years ago, Old Man’s Beard was already being used as a medicine to treat lung cancer. It’s still used today as a treatment for tuberculosis in China as it contains usnic acid.
La barbe de nain illustration by Elisabeth Ivanovsky
The antibiotic properties of Old Man’s Beard make it an effective treatment for fish infections in ponds and aquariums. Yellow warblers seek forests where the Beard is present as they consider it an indispensable construction material in building their nests.
A french fairy tale, LA BARBE DE NAIN by Marcelle Vérité, explains that the beards once belonged to elves. Long ago, it was customary for these kind, cheerful creatures to arrange bundles of deadwood on the forest floor as a gift for mankind. But when men greedily began to cut down live trees, the elves hastily fled to remote mountain peaks, snagging their beards on branches in the process. The lost beards can be found in forests to this day.
Considering the wonderful medicinal properties of these beards, their elvish origins are no surprise to me.
Fascinating, Amy-Lynn! I’m not sure if we have Old Man’s Beard around here, but I will look for it and remember the elves’ flight if I do see it!
Hi Barbara, in some places it is called Witch’s Beard. Its scientific name is usnea. It is related to Spanish Moss which grows in the southern United States.
This is so interesting Amy. It was everywhere in our Pacific Northwest forests but I don’t recall seeing much of it here in central CA. Maybe too hot and dry but now you have me thinking. I’ll start paying closer attention to what lichens might be growing on our trees, lots of oak and mixed hardwoods.
What a charming fairy tale and illustration!
Colleen, they probably don’t take too well to extreme heat or sustained dry spells. I’m glad you found the tale and image charming. I found them absolutely magical
Wonderful photos, and I loved the fairy tale aspect!
Thanks Fototype
Aha Amy Lynn, we’re on that lichen topic again! I love that stuff! We call wild clematis seed heads Old Man’s Beard in the UK, funny that. I saw a lot of different varieties of lichen in the Lake District last week. The air is so good up there. Fascinating history of it healing ailments. I should be coming to NS in July…….I hope!
Lynne, the wild clematis seed heads look like Lorax heads!
Isn’t the Lake District Beatrix Potter’s old stomping grounds?
Looking forward to seeing you in Lichenland whenever you get here
The beards are lovely. I always enjoy seeing them in the woods. You’ve created a wonderful post highlighting them. I feel the magic of their spirits in your words.
You have an excellent nose for sniffing out the magic Kathy
I love seeing those beards in the woods too.
That’s amazing stuff Amy-Lynn. Lung cancer treatment, 1,000 years ago !
The elves illustration is fun. Love Old Man’s Beard.
Sybil, maybe we should start harvesting, drying and pummeling it in large quantities for our old age
It’s the sort of thing that might come in handy in a number of instances.
Nature has it ALL!
47whitebuffalo, it most certainly does. I’m sure it will be discovered all over again at some point when the large pharmaceutical companies can figure out a way to make money off it.
I live just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska in a beautiful birch forest with old man’s beard everywhere you look, it’s lovely. Great post, thanks!
Aha Judy! It’s growing on the birches where you are too. The air must be pretty clean where you are.
Those are just beautiful photos. There are lots of lichens in my woods, but the only place I recall seeing a lot of old man’s beard was on Isle Royale. I’ll have to start paying more attention. (Funny how often I think that when I visit you.)
Gerry, those lichens are a photogenic lot, especially with a sprinkling of mist on them. I never noticed old man’s beard on the trees when I lived in Northern Ontario. Probably too dry there for that. Maybe it’s the same in Northern Michigan.
Those illustrations are so sweet! Thanks for all the interesting info!
Thanks Jennifer
They certainly are sweet.
I love the old man’s beard story. I haven’t seen any of it around here, but I do remember it from my childhood.
Dustytoes, I think old man’s beard seen in childhood is more magical than old man’s beard seen at any other age. I’m glad you enjoyed the story. It was from a book given to me by my grandfather when I was a child.
Wonderful! Just got a book on lichens and I’m looking forward to gettng back to the French Shore to identify some. Love your posts.
Margaret, lichens are a whole other little world in themselves. Once you take an interest in them, the forest reveals yet another side of itself. I’m sure you’ll enjoy checking them out on the French Shore. Glad you enjoy the posts
So many of our wonder drugs have their origins in plant extracts – chemistry merely refines them. I did my master’s thesis on Podophylotoxin a compound used for cancer chemotherapy that can be extracted from May Apples. My professor and I were trying to reproduce the compound out of leftovers from the paper pulping process which is a much more available resource.
Mark, I’d never heard of May Apples before so had to look them up. Apparently, they also grow in Nova Scotia.
Our forests are disappearing at such an alarming rate. One of my favorite movies is ‘Medicine Man’ with Sean Connery trying to re-discover a cure for cancer in a South American rainforest before it’s cut down. There’s so much we’ll likely never know about the wonders to be found in plants.
What a great surprise to find a post in which is mentioned Old Man’s Bird. It happens very seldom.
Here is my post how they look like in Finland:
Autumn holiday.
Sartenada, it’s remarkable how the Old Man’s Beard in Finland looks exactly like what I have in my back yard here in Nova Scotia. It is a magical garland that deserves more attention than it usually gets.