Related question: Can lichens fallen on the ground or displaced from their natural habitat survive?
I’d be interested in making an herbarium but I do not want to rip lichens off the branches they grow from…
I often see many lichens (mostly Evernia sp., Ramalina sp.) fallen on the ground because of the wind, birds or something else.
Therefore, I’m wondering if those fallen lichens can be collected without tempering with their livelihood…
This topic is more broadly related to the ethics of sampling specimen from their natural habitat. If you have ressources on the topic, I’m interested.
Not an expert on lichen, but in my experience most will not survive when just about anything in their environment changes. So I’d say it’s no problem collecting a fallen down one, it would die anyway (unless of course in a nature preserve which prohibits collecting anything at all).
Other than that, they are often specialized to very specific conditions, like only growing on the bark of a specific tree, only at a certain angle to the sun, a certain height above ground, very specific humidity, etc. - so those would not survive in a terrarium. Others just need full sunlight but otherwise grow anywhere.