ARCTIC PLANT LIFE

(lichens and mosses)


LICHENS


LICHENS (li-kens) are one type of plant found in the Arctic. A lichen looks like one plant but is made up of two different kinds of plants - algae (al-jee) and fungi (fun-ji) .

click on each photo to see a larger picture
courtesy of W. Scott Elliot
lichen
courtesy of W. Scott Elliot
orange lichen
courtesy of W. Scott Elliot
lichen on rock

There are more than 15,000 different kinds of lichens. Some look like a flaky crust growing on rocks and trees. Some are flat and leafy looking. Some look like little bushy plants and others hang from the trees. Reindeer lichen looks like tiny antlers. (photo)

A strange thing about lichens is - they don't need soil to grow. Some can grow on rocks. Lichens help break down the rock into soil. Then mosses and ferns are able to grow. Later other plants and shrubs will also grow.

Many animals depend on lichens for food. In winter caribou on the Arctic tundra would starve without lichens. They can smell lichen under the snow and dig to get to the plants. Small mammals use lichens to line their nests or burrows.


MOSSES


Mosses are flowerless plants with very tiny leaves and no roots. Each plant has tiny threadlike rootlets (called rhizoids) that absorb moisture and minerals from the soil. On moist ground hundreds of tiny moss plants form spongy cushions or mats.

Moss grows in wet places and in places where there is not much soil. Moss will even grow on rocks.

moss on rock

moss on rock


Some birds and small mammals use moss to line their nests.


** INTRODUCTION ** PEOPLE ** ANIMALS ** PLANTS ** CLIMATE CHANGE ** ARCTIC INDEX **


**photo credits**
photos of lichens taken by W. Scott Elliot , used with permission
photo rdeer lichen.jpg taken by L. Schneider ; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
moss1.jpg photo © Bruce Denney for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike
moss2.jpg photo © Michele Valentinuz for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

J.Giannetta
August,2000
updated April 2017

background: Arctic poppy