Staghorn lichen is named as it is because someone thought it looked like deer antlers. In europe it is called Wolf lichen because, poisons were extracted from it to kill wolves there.
Staghorn lichen attaches itself to trees just for a place to live. It is not parasitic and does not hurt the tree. Staghorn lives on one side of the tree. I am not sure why yet. There is no consistency to it that I can see.
Notice that staghorn does not live on the bottom of the tree. It does not live in the snow level. The snow and ice moving on the tree will shear off the lichen from the tree. That's kind of interesting in a way. In the spring we can walk the forest and see how deep the snow was that winter.
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Thanks for sharing this info. I found your great site while trying to identify the lichen we saw at Indian Grinding Rock SP this past week. They must not get too much snow for the lichen was only a foot above the ground. Thanks again!
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