Methuselah's beard lichen
The longest lichen in the world, hanging in pale green beards from old rainforest branches, and a winter food for deer and flying squirrels.
Methuselah's beard lichen at a glance
Usnea longissima muh-THOO-zuh-luhz beard LY-ken; Usnea longissima is US-nee-uh lon-JISS-ih-muh
- Type
- Fungus · lichen
- Diet
- Producer
- Size
- Hangs in strands that can reach well over 3 feet, sometimes much longer, the longest of any lichen.
- Lifespan
- Slow-growing and long-lived, hanging on the same branches for many years.
- Conservation
- Not formally assessed globally by IUCN, but declining and lost from many areas due to air pollution and logging
A lichen partnership. The fungus builds the long hanging strands and holds water, while algae inside make food from sunlight. It soaks up moisture and nutrients straight from clean, humid air and fog.
Is it safe to touch?
Harmless to touch. Feel how light and dry the strands are, like pale green hair. Do not pull it down, since it grows very slowly and depends on hanging undisturbed in the treetops.
Deep in the wettest part of the Olympic rainforest, the branches over your head grow beards. Pale green strands hang down from the limbs of the old trees, some of them longer than you are tall, swaying a little in the damp air. This is Methuselah’s beard lichen, and it holds a simple record. It is the longest lichen in the world. No other comes close to trailing the way it does, several feet and sometimes far more from a single branch, named for the oldest man in an old story because of the way it drapes like ancient hair.
It lives on the branch without harming the tree, hanging there only for a place to catch the light and the fog. Like all lichens it is a partnership, a fungus spinning the long strands and holding water, algae inside making food from sunlight, the two of them soaking their living straight out of the clean, wet air. That is the catch. The lichen cannot tolerate dirty air, so it has vanished from every place the air went bad, and now it hangs mostly in old, damp forests like this one, a strand of proof that the air here is clean.
It is not only decoration. When winter strips the forest of easy food, deer reach up to eat the hanging strands and northern flying squirrels feed on them in the dark, and come spring many birds gather the soft threads to line their nests. Reach up and feel a strand, light and dry as hair, then leave it swinging where it hangs. It took years to grow that long, and the whole quiet forest is using it.
Did you know?
- It is the longest lichen in the world, hanging in strands that can trail several feet or more from a single branch.
- In winter, when other food is scarce, deer and northern flying squirrels eat it, and many birds use the soft strands to line their nests.
- Like other beard lichens it needs clean, damp air, so it has disappeared from polluted regions and now grows mainly in old, wet, unspoiled forests.
Common questions
What is the longest lichen in the world?
Methuselah's beard lichen. It hangs from branches in pale green strands that can trail several feet or more, longer than any other lichen.
Does anything eat it?
Yes. In winter, deer and northern flying squirrels eat it when other food is scarce, and many birds gather the soft strands to line their nests.
Why is it disappearing in some places?
It needs clean, damp air and old, undisturbed forest. Air pollution and logging have wiped it out of many regions, so it now grows mainly in wet old-growth like the Olympic rainforest.