When was the last time you really looked at lichen? These unassuming organisms are everywhere – on rocks, soil, and tree bark – even on sidewalks or parking lots! Although they are easily overlooked, artists have brought the tiny worlds of lichen to life on the page for hundreds of years.
Lara Call Gastinger’s Moonglow lichen (Dimelaena oreina) is precisely painted onto calfskin vellum, mimicking the surface of its rock-face habitat.
The complex lifeform is illustrated in the exhibit, Curious Allies: Exploring Relationships in Fungi, Parasites, and Carnivores, the Fifth New York Botanical Garden Triennial with the American Society of Botanical Artists, currently on display at the Bell Museum. Contemporary botanical artists from around the world have captured the beauty of lichen and their interconnectedness to other beings. Through their artwork, the artists illustrated the concept of symbiosis, a close, long-term relationship between species.
Christiane Fashek’s Spiraling 16x depicts three kinds of lichen on a monumental scale, their diverse forms weaving in and out of each other until it is impossible to tell where one ends and another begins.
Lichen is a perfect example of symbiosis in action. It is a partnership of fungi, algae, and sometimes cyanobacteria. The fine threads (hyphae) of fungi provide water, while algae produce the sugars.
The relationship between botany and botanical illustration is another form of symbiosis. For centuries, people from across many fields and disciplines have relied on artists to depict the botanical world – to record medicinal properties, visualize scientific discoveries, and document species living in a certain place at a certain time.
After exploring the Curious Allies exhibit, I was inspired to find historic examples of lichen illustrations in the rare book collection of the Andersen Horticultural Library where I work. This task turned out to be quite the undertaking! Lichen has been represented by artists long before this complex organism was understood. It appears under a variety of classifications, for example, as a moss or fungus – these two lifeforms were not distinguished until the end of the 1600s. While this is not a comprehensive overview of lichen in botanical illustration, I’ve chosen to highlight a few examples from the collection that I thought were especially intriguing.
Woodblock illustration of Lobaria pulmonaria or “lungwort” in De Historia Stirpium, by Leonhart Fuchs (1542).
Leonhart Fuchs, De Historia Stirpium, 1542
An early example of a lichen illustration in print appears in De Historia Stirpium (“On the History of Plants”), a 16th-century herbal, or book about plants and their medicinal and culinary properties. De Historia Stirpium was published by German physician and botanist Leonhart Fuchs in 1542. While Fuchs was not the artist, he closely supervised the depiction of these life-like plants. Among the 500 original woodblock illustrations, there are many plants that had recently arrived in Europe from voyages to the Americas. In fact, Fuchs was the first European to depict maize!
Lichen has long been used in folk medicine as a remedy for a variety of illnesses. De Historia Stirpium includes an illustration of Lobaria pulmonaria or “lungwort”, named for its similar appearance to a human lung. In early medicine, it was believed that some medicinal plants cured the bodypart they resembled (this belief was called the “Doctrine of Signatures”). Therefore, “lungwort” was believed to treat respiratory ailments.
Lichen wasn’t recognized as a separate organism until the late 1600s, and was often lumped in with other lifeforms, such as mosses, liverworts, and algae.
John Gerard, The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes,1633 (Revised by Thomas Johnson)
The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes was first compiled by English gardener and surgeon named John Gerard in 1597. Like Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium, Gerard’s Herball documented the various uses of plants. Unlike Fuchs, Gerard was not a botanist. Much of the information was compiled from existing sources. The book was later revised and added to by Thomas Johnson in the mid 1600s (the Andersen Horticultural Library’s copy is the revised version). However, the book does include some of Gerard’s first-hand observations, particularly of newly arrived plants from the Americas.
Illustration of moss’ or lichen growing on a human skull in The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes, by John Gerard (1633). The original woodblock illustration is probably from another contemporary herbal, Eicones plantarum by Tabernaemontanus.
A particularly puzzling remedy is illustrated by a human skull covered in leafy growth, labeled “Muscus ex Craneo Humano” (the moss growing on a human skull). In the text, Gerard describes its use as to cure epilepsy and whooping cough. The leafy organism depicted might be a type of foliose (leafy) lichen – if it was actually a lichen at all (lichens were not distinguished from mosses for another century). The use of “skull lichen” or “skull moss” is a remedy dating back to at least the mid-1500s. This morbid ingredient was claimed to cure a variety of illnesses, from dysentery to bleeding.
Illustration of Lichen caninus, or “ash-coloured ground liverwort” from volume 4 of Medical Botany, illustrated by William Woodville and James Sowerby (1790).
James Sowerby, Medical Botany, 1790
In the 18th-century, scientists were developing a new understanding of lichen. Whereas lichen had previously been lumped in with other organisms, such as mosses and algae, it became recognized at least as a distinct genus in the early 1700s. Innovations in printing technology had also come a long way from the woodblock prints of 16th-century herbals. Copper engraving allowed for finer, more exact lines, making it possible for artists to illustrate their subjects in detail.
James Sowerby was an English artist, engraver, and nature-lover who illustrated many facets of the natural world, from botanicals to barnacles. Between 1790 and 1794, Sowerby and physician William Woodville issued the first edition of Medical Botany. Descriptions of the plants, accompanied by detailed, hand-colored illustrations, aided in the identification of species and their medical uses. This book would have been useful to medical practitioners, apothecaries, and naturalists alike.
This illustration of a foliose lichen in the 4th volume of the Andersen Horticultural Library’s Medical Botany is labeled Lichen caninus, or “ash-coloured ground liverwort.” The text describes its use as a treatment for those unfortunate enough to be bitten by a rabid dog. This was likely due to the lichen’s resemblance to a hound’s tooth. Today, this species has been reclassified as Peltigera canina, or “dog lichen.” There is no evidence that it has any curative properties regarding rabies.
Lithographic illustrations in Willaim Allport Leighton’s, The British Species of Angiocarpous Lichens Elucidated by their Sporidia, 1851
William Allport Leighton, The British Species of Angiocarpous Lichens Elucidated by their Sporidia, 1851
A century later, scientific advances made it possible for lichenologists to use new methods for identifying species. William Allport Leighton was an English botanist and clergyman. After leaving his role as a deacon and priest, Leighton immersed himself in the world of “cryptogams”, a mysterious-sounding term that refers to organisms that reproduce without flowers or seeds.
His 1851 publication, The British Species of Angiocarpous Lichens Elucidated by their Sporidia, explores the world of “chemical lichenology,” a method of testing lichen using chemical reactions to identify and classify species. The book is illustrated with lithographic illustrations created by Leighton. To the untrained eye, they appear like abstract art (I’ll admit, I had to look up what “angiocarpous” means). However the quality of the lithographic prints – and Leighton’s artistic skills – were criticized and said to affect the sales of the book.
A gray clamshell box contains Rhionnon Alper’s multi-media book, like a miniature cabinet of curiosities. As the reader explores this tactile book, they experience an element of discovery.
Rhiannon Alpers, Lichen: Rambles in the Colorado Front Range, 2024
While writing this article, I became self-conscious that each of the publications I described above were written and illustrated by men. However, this does not mean that women were absent from the weird world of lichenology or lichen illustration. Rare bookrooms around the world tend to be dominated by white, male authors. Today many librarians, curators, artists, and authors are working hard to diversify the collections to include a multitude of identities and experiences.
The relationship between women, lichen, and fieldwork is celebrated and explored by contemporary book artist, Rhiannon Alpers in her tactile, multimedia art book, Lichen: Rambles in the Colorado Front Range, published in 2024. In her work, Alpers highlights two lichen species and one species of moss. Her book contains collaged maps, scientific names, and color swatches in watercolor.
Alpers’ work is contained within a gray clamshell box. Like a miniature “cabinet of curiosities,” the reader can explore this tactile book and experience an element of discovery, finding a fold-out accordion book titled, FieldWork: Ladies of Lichenology about 20th-century women naturalists in the field, tiny vials containing lichen specimens, and a small magnifier called a loupe, essential to studying such miniscule subject matter.
Rhiannon Alper’s work also contains an accordion-style book about women in the field of lichenology, specimens, and a magnifier.
Exploring Andersen Horticultural Library’s collection gave me a new appreciation for lichen and those who rendered it on the page. For centuries, artists have illuminated the beauty of their complex world and their interaction with other organisms. Studying early illustrations of lichen in botanical art was a reminder of just how far we’ve come in our understanding of this mysterious lifeform (quite a long way from curing our ailments with “skull moss/lichen!) – and perhaps how much we still have to discover.
With many long winter months to look forward to in Minnesota, I am looking forward to long winter walks where I can still observe – and perhaps draw – the tiny worlds of lichen.
From the Rare Book Room:
You can see these rare books exhibited in the rare book room window display at the Andersen Horticultural Library through the end of January!*
- Fuchs, Leonhart, Veit Rudolph Specklin, and M Isingrin. De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes : Maximis Impensis et Vigiliis Elaborati, Adiectis Earundem Vivis Plusquam Quingentis Imaginibus, Nunquam Antea Ad Naturae Imitationem Artificiosius Effictis & Expressis. Basel: 1542.
- Gerard, John, Adam Islip, Joyce Norton, Richard Whitaker, Robert Davyes, Thomas Johnson, Robert Priest, John Payne, and Rembert Dodoens. The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. London: 1633.
- Woodville, William, James Sowerby, and James Phillips. Medical Botany : Containing Systematic and General Descriptions, with Plates, of All the Medicinal Plants, Indigenous and Exotic, Comprehended in the Catalogues of the Materia Medica, as Published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh : Accompanied with a Circumstantial Detail of Their Medicinal Effects, and of the Diseases in Which They Have Been Most Successfully Employed. Vol 4. London: 1790.
- Leighton, W. A, and David Salomons. The British Species of Angiocarpous Lichens, Elucidated by Their Sporidia. London: Printed for the Ray Society, 1851.
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Alpers, Rhiannon. Lichen : Rambles in the Colorado Front Range. Denver, Colorado: Gazelle and Goat Press, 2024.
