Icelandic moss (Cetraria islandica) - Cetraria islandica. Family Parmeliaceae.
It's not actually a moss, it's a lichen. "The mysterious sphinx of nature, which astonished not long ago our brilliant physiologist K. Timiryazev. A special kind of symbiosis: fungus plus algae. Not a simple sum. Your own way of life. Its own way of reproduction" (A. Smirnoff). The Icelandic moss plant is among the most highly organized lichens. The symbiosis of fungi and algae in Icelandic moss is friendly and mutually beneficial: fungi get water, algae - food, and then share their prey between them, Therefore, the plant cetraria (Icelandic moss) can grow even on bare rock or on very poor peat.
You pass by the small world as an outsider.
As you sit on the rock, take in the amazing micro-relief.
On a forest boulder - between the mosses - are the quirks of cladonia.
Know these forms by capturing their fantasy.
It's as if we were modeled on the image of another biosphere!
Here is a lichen like a shot glass; next to it - like a faceted ice.
And the cetraria outgrowths are like the wilds of Venus,
A rover beetle hurries through this thicket.
Without lichens, the North would lose all its charm,
That's why I'm studying the palette of the blanketed rocks.
Ю. Linnik
The pith of the Cetraria icelandica plant is branched into lobes and raised above the soil. The blades of the cetraria Icelandica puff, provided with cilia along the edges, are broad and flat or twisted into tubes, often with white spots on the upper side.
In tundras, on mountain tops, in forest tundra and taiga, the plant Cetraria icelandica often forms pure clumps or mixed with other species. Lichens are accompanied here by northern species of grasses and shrubs. In the taiga, the plant Icelandic moss is common together with true mosses in the ground cover of dry pine forests. It is not uncommon to find Icelandic moss on ridges and slopes of very poor upland bogs. There is a lot of Icelandic moss, for example, on the bogs of the Pribelomorie, on the tops of hillocks of tundra bogs.
Once in suitable conditions on bogs, lichens gradually displace sphagnum mosses - and then the bogs stop growing upwards.
But why does this Icelandic cetraria have such a species name? Isn't it somehow connected with Iceland? Probably, after all, this country has something to do with our lichen. Maybe by the fact that in Iceland (and in other northern countries as well), Icelandic cetraria was added to flour when baking bread?
Icelandic cetraria is recognized by scientific medicine and is also known among folk healers. The fact is that cetraria icelandica layers are 80% carbohydrates, and half of them are lichenin (a special lichen starch). When soaked, lichenin swells greatly, after which it can already be digested by the body. There is in the plant of Icelandic moss bitter substance (2-3%), cetrarine, fumaric acid, gum, sugar, mineral salts, vitamin B12. But especially interesting for medicine is the usninic acid of Cetraria icelandica, which has a strong bactericidal effect. Even in small doses (1 : 2000000) it kills pathogenic germs, and in stronger doses - and the causative agents of tuberculosis. Preparations from the plant cetraria Icelandic have a calming effect on the nervous system, enveloping the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, they treat diarrhea and chronic constipation. The bitter substance, by stimulating the secretion of gastric juice, helps to increase appetite. Alcoholic and oil extracts of Cetraria Icelandica are used as an external remedy to treat festering wounds and burns. Folk medicine recommends cetraria Icelandic for whooping cough and tuberculosis.
Icelandic cetraria is also known as a food plant. It has a lot of carbohydrates and good digestibility, but it is very bitter. Centuries of folk experience came in handy here, too. Soaked in a soda solution cetraria Icelandica puffs lose bitterness. Dried and ground, they served as a supplement to flour during the difficult years of the northern peoples. Lichen flour was mixed with rye flour in the proportion of 1:1. Bread without flour would crumble because there is almost no protein in the cetraria isladska plant.
Icelandic cetraria, together with other lichens (one of which is reindeer moss), is the main food of reindeer. Some lichen species are used to extract fragrant substances used in perfumery. The famous cologne "Chypre", for example, is perfumed with an extract from evernia lichen.
It is impossible not to mention one more peculiarity of Icelandic cetraria - its love for clean air. If harmful impurities appear in the air, the cetraria dies..
