Reindeer moss is a lichen, not a moss

There are several species of lichens that often are sold as 'mosses', and reindeer lichen is one of the most common.  It is frequently used in holiday and flower decorations and for trees and shrubs in train model making. This type of lichen grows on wet soil and rocks in northern temperate forests and are often harvested and sold commercially.

Here are some examples of wrongly labeled products:

SuperMoss, which is not a moss, but a lichen.
© Supermoss, fair use.

Terrarium necklace with 'moss', which in this case is a lichen.
© Catherine Weitzman for Uncommon Goods. fair use.

"Moss Heart Ring", also made only with a lichen, no moss.
© AbstractAverun on Etsy, fair use

So, who cares if you call it a moss instead of a lichen?  Well, those two organism are about as different as a cat and a katydid, and if you mixed up those two you would care, right? (For those that need to know, a katydid is like a giant, green grasshopper with long antennae. It is an insect, not a mammal, like a cat.)   Reindeer 'moss' and the real mosses might look similar, especially when the lichen is stained artificially green, but they are very, very different and not closely related.

Lichens are a kind of organism that is formed by a fungus and an algae (and bacteria too) that live together in symbiosis.  They can look crusty, leafy, bushy, and branchy and grow on soil, bark, rocks, and leaves.  Often they are only green when wet, otherwise the fungus gives the lichen a more gray, white, yellow, or black color.  The algae inside the lichen is a small microscopic plant that is related to planktonic and marine green algae (and a few green algae that live on land too). Green algae are the precursors to the land plants, including mosses. Lichens never have real leaves. Sometimes you can see lichens with colorful 'cups' on them, those are the sporangia of the fungus that can spread fungal lichen spores around.  Lichens grow extremely slow and can live in many extreme environments (cold, heat, dry, etc.).

Mosses are small land plants that spread with spores from structures called sporangia. Mosses have small real leaves on stems and no flowers.  Mosses are most closely related to ferns, conifers, and flowering plants (instead of algae).

So, to sell something as a moss that is really a lichen is false marketing and provides the wrong product information.  This linguistic mistake and error has been around for a long time, and it is time to change it.  Of course, you can argue that common names are OK even if they are wrong, but why perpetuate such an error when we have the perfectly fine name 'reindeer lichen' already?

So,

CORRECT NAME: Reindeer lichen, caribou lichen

INCORRECT NAME: Reindeer moss, caribou moss

Greening Singapore with temperate weeds?

2013 logo for Singapore's National Park Service
© Singapore National Parks, fair use.

I recently recieved an e-mail from Singapore and this nice logo above was attached to the e-mail.  It celebrates 50 years of Greening Singapore by their National Parks service.  I have never been to Singapore, but I have heard and read about its fantastic tropical flora and fauna, and how this country supports environmental sustainability.

The issue here are the flowers in the logo.  The trees appear to be tropical trees, but the nice wildflowers in the foreground appears to be mostly temperate weeds.  Maybe these are common in Singapore as well, but wouldn't you have wanted to highlight tropical flowers such as orchids, hibiscus, or maybe even some nice native wildflowers. Singapore is nearly on the equator, so about as far away you can get from our temperate flora and seasons.

The wildflowers in question appear to be (from left to right):

Close-up of logo above.

A thistle? (Cirsium?, Asteraceae) {also known as a common weed}

A hawkweed or dandelion? (Taraxacum, Crepis, Hieracium?, Asteraceae) {another weed}

An oxeeye daisy? (Leucanthemum vulgare, Asteraceae)

 and...

Close-up of logo above.

a blue bell (Campanula, Campanulaceae)

These would be the kind of flowers you find in (well, maybe outside...) London, for example, and they are typical of temperate areas.  I can't help wonder if the company that designed the logo just went online and picked any pretty flowers they could find, or sent out the work order to a designer without thinking about what plants that would be appropriate for this particular place. Of course there is artistic freedom, but in this case, the logo is supposed to celebrate the work of making Singapore a more green tropical city. 

If any Singaporean botanists read this, please let me know what you think, because I would love to have your feedback on this. 

Canada's government: Wrong maple on the money

Canada's new $20 bill, 2012. Copyright: CBC.

As reported by CBC Canada a little while ago, botanists in Canada have shown that the newly designed $20 Canadian bill, shows a leaf of the Norway maple (Acer platanoides), not the sugar maple (Acer saccharum). The white-silvery leaf on the bill above on the right side is the wrong species.
   Maple is the national tree of Canada, which has ten native species.  The sugar maple is probably the most commonly known due to the production of maple syrup from sap collected in the spring and its fantastic red to yellow fall color.  Norway maple, however, is a European species often planted in Canada and USA and that is now considered invasive in forests of North America.
   This mistake is like having a mallard duck instead of a turkey as your Thanksgiving decoration or main dish.  Or buying a plum instead of a peach because you don't know the difference (both of those are in the same genus, just like the two maples).
    Click on the link to CBC above to read more.  The Canadian government's excuse is not that great - and it would have been easy to ask a botanist and avoiding this mistake from the beginning. Even if botanists don't grow on trees, they are quite abundant.

This post was updated on 28 January 2014 with some new information regarding Canada's national tree. Thanks MF for the additional information!

Royal Copenhagen: Flora Danica (example 1)

One of the most expensive china sets in the world, Flora Danica, is produced by the renowned company Royal Copenhagen, and the designs are taken from the historic illustrated works of Flora Danica ('The Flora of Denmark').  For their recent designs, they incorrectly named not one, but two, of the species they have used from the flora illustrations.  Both species are commonly known plants, not rare species.

Source: Royal Copenhagen's 2012 brochure.

The two 2012 designs are also prominently featured in their marketing brochure. Both designs are made by Anja Vang Kragh, a freelance designer. This mistake really surprised me considering the long tradition of excellence in botany in Denmark, and that all illustrations from Flora Danica are available with scientific names.  

The two plates that have the wrong species listed.
Source: Royal Copenhagen's 2012 brochure.

Example 1: The lion's teeth that was a goat's beard

This pattern is listed as 'Dandelion' in the English 2012 catalog, and as 'Mælkebøtte' (the Danish name for dandelion) in the Danish version of the 2012 catalog. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is one of the most common weeds in the northern hemisphere and most everybody can recognize a dandelion. This is how the newly designed china looks like:

'Dandelion' pattern from Royal Copenhagen's Flora Danica series. Image source: Royal Copenhagen.

A quick search through The Kongelig Bibliotek's online Flora Danica illustrations, shows that 'Mælkebøtte' brings you to Taraxacum, just as it should. However, none of the plates are the design used on the plates above.  Instead, the design on the china is most likely from this Flora Danica illustration (see below), with parts removed, the illustration inverted, parts moved and copied in, and so on.

Tragopogon minor, Flora Danica, plate 2838.
Source: http://www.plantgenera.org; Public Domain.

This Flora Danica illustration features Tragopogon minor, a species that now goes under the name Tragopogon pratensis subspecies minor. It is called 'Meadow's salsify' or 'Showy Goat's Beard' in North America (the edible salsify belongs to the genus Scorzonera, also in this family).  It is considered a weed in North America, and it was introduced from Eurasia. It is a very common plant in southern Scandinavia, and it is in the same family (Asteraceae) as dandelion.
      You can easiest tell these two genera apart based on the long narrow leaves, while dandelion has toothed leaves, like lion's teeth, which is how it got its common name in English.
      Interestingly enough, Royal Copenhagen has already used this exact illustration on a previous Flora Danica piece, see here. It was then used with the correct species name in their catalog.

Example 2 will focus on the 'pansy' or 'stedmoderblomst' design, also shown above in the photo from the 2012 brochure.