Lettuce Lichen
Lobaria oregana
Fungi & Lichens
Moist coastal forest
iNaturalist record: Mar 2022
Meet this species
Lettuce lichen is a conspicuous member of the moist coastal forest community. Like other lichens, it is a partnership in which a fungus lives together with photosynthetic partners. Growing on trees allows it to occupy a very different ecological layer from the plants, fungi and animals living on or beneath the forest floor.
Broad leafy lettuce lichen growing on vegetation in the coastal forest near Greene Point.
What to look for:
Look for large, leafy green-grey lobes growing on trunks and branches in moist forest. The broad, ruffled thallus can resemble loose lettuce leaves, especially when hydrated. Unlike moss, lichen is not a plant and does not have true leaves.
Why It Matters Here:
Lettuce lichen helps broaden the watershed story beyond the organisms people notice first. Before water reaches Glasgow Creek, it moves through a forest whose trunks, branches, bark and canopy surfaces support their own complex biological communities.
Field Record
Documented at Greene Point through field observations and photographs recorded on iNaturalist.