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wolf lichen
Letharia vulpina
Letharia vulpina, commonly known as the wolf lichen (although the species name vulpina, from vulpine relates to the fox), is a fruticose lichenized species of fungus in the family Parmeliaceae. It is bright yellow-green, shrubby and highly branched, and grows on the bark of living and dead conifers in parts of western and continental Europe and the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains of North America. This species is somewhat toxic to mammals due to the yellow pigment vulpinic acid, and has been used historically as a poison for wolves and foxes. It has also been used traditionally by many native North American ethnic groups as a pigment source for dyes and paints.
From the article Letharia vulpina on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The thallus, or vegetative body, has a fruticose shape — that is, shrubby and densely branched — and a bright yellow to yellow-green, or chartreuse color, although the color will fade in drier specimens. Its dimensions are typically 2 to 7 cm (0.8 to 3 in) in diameter. The vegetative reproductive structures soredia and isidia are present on the surface of the thalli, often abundantly.
Range & habitat
Letharia vulpina occurs throughout the Pacific Northwest. It is often abundant on exposed branches that have lost their bark. In old, moist forests, it is typically found in drier areas. This species has an intermediate air pollution sensitivity. In the Rocky Mountains, Letharia species are found in ponderosa forests at the prairie-forest boundary at relatively low elevations though medium and high elevation Douglas fir and lodgepole pine forests.
Wikipedia: “Distribution and habitat”
At the table
Some Plateau Indian tribes used wolf lichen as a poultice for swelling, bruises, sores, and boils, and boiled it as a drink to stop bleeding. The brightly coloured fruiting bodies are popular in floral arrangements.
Dyeing. Wolf moss is traditionally used as the yellow dye in Chilkat blankets woven by the Tlingit people. The dye acts as a natural pesticide for the wool clothing. The wolf moss range doesn't extend to the Tongass forest, indicating that the lichen was traded. The Klamath Indians in California soaked porcupine quills in a chartreuse-colored extract of Letharia vulpina that dyed them yellow; the quills were woven into the basket patterns.
Poison. The use of this species for poisoning wolves and foxes goes back at least hundreds of years, based on the mention of the practice in Christoph Gedner's "Of the use of curiosity", collected in Benjamin Stillingfleet, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History, Husbandry and Physics (London, 1759). According to British lichenologist Annie Lorrain Smith, reindeer carcasses were stuffed with lichen and powdered glass, and suggests that the sharp edges of the glass would make the animals' internal organs more susceptible to the effects of the lichen poison. …
Wikipedia: “Uses”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Letharia vulpina in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 54613.