Malcolm Hodges can spend hours studying the living crust on a rock no larger than a saucer.
"It's a whole garden -- a jumble of life," he said. "That's why lichens are so fascinating."
Hodges, an ecologist for The Nature Conservancy, is among more than a dozen of the nation's best lichenologists visiting Augusta this week for a workshop and series of field trips devoted to the ubiquitous fungus that grows almost everywhere on Earth.
"There are more than 800 species just in Georgia," Hodges said. "There's also a lot more to be discovered about them."
Each year, the group converges in a new place to share information and explore new terrain.
"Last year we were in Naples, Fla.," Hodges said. "Before that, it was Ontario and Newfoundland."
Lichens don't attract a lot of attention, but their understated glamour is part of their charm, said Hal Schaefer, a Boston scientist whose doctorate in mycology led him first to appreciate mushrooms -- then lichens.
"Some of them have usnic acid, which has antibacterial properties," he said.
Certain lichens also provide a glimpse into air quality and pollution levels, Schaefer said. "Sometimes, you go into a large city and you'll find very few."
Schaefer and others in the Tuckerman Lichen Workshop -- named after lichenology pioneer Ed Tucker -- are combing Heggies Rock, Burks Mountain and other areas this week to explore local lichen life and look for new species.
Most lichens have long Latin names, while some species have more common names, Schaefer said.
"We don't use them much, though, unless we're interacting with the non-lichen public."
For example, Cladonia subtenuis can also be commonly referred to as "Dixie Reindeer Lichen," while the red-capped Cladonia cristatella is often called "British Soldiers."
Lichen hunters carry a unique set of tools: a high-magnification loupe, chisels for wood or stone, sample bags, a small saw, clippers, a rock pick -- and a GPS device, which Hodges said is handy for properly documenting the location where samples were taken.
"We take a lot of samples back to the lab to dissect," he said. "We look at the spores or use chemicals to do tests on them."
Lichen research, Hodges said, still has a long way to go.
"Although they've probably been around since prehistoric times, we don't know much about their ancient history," he said.
"They're small and soft, so they don't leave much in the fossil record."
Hodges and fellow lichenologist Sean Beeching are in the process of developing an atlas of Georgia lichen species.
"It's something we find important," he said. "We like to open people's eyes to it."
- A lichen is not a single organism, but the result of a partnership between fungi and algae or cyanobacteria.
- Lichens occur almost everywhere, even in extremely dry environments. There are 13,500 to 18,000 known species.
- A lichen can absorb three to 35 times its weight in water and gets moisture from rain, dew, fog -- even air.
- Lichens hundreds of years old can be used to date the rock surfaces on which they grow.
- The presence or absence of certain lichens in an area has been used to map concentrations of air pollutants.
- Lichens make about 400 "secondary products" believed to ward off disease, or to make them taste bad to animals.
- Some lichen compounds are used as anti-viral and anti-bacterial medications.
- Lichens can be used to scent soaps and make perfumes and dyes.
- Woolen dyes once were made mostly from lichens, but the discovery of synthetic dyes ended that demand.
- Lichen dye is still used to make litmus paper, which is used to test the acidity of liquids.
- Above the Arctic Circle, lichens are harvested as winter reindeer food, much like farmers stockpile hay.
Source: Oregon State University
For a list of links to Web sites devoted to lichenology: www.nybg.org/bsci/lichens/eln/lichen_sites.html
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