So, I ran into this observation. I thought, sure, it looks like Usnea, but it’s so in the middle of a residential area, right at the side of Helsinki, maybe 5 km from Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, and even less from a busy highway (E18) that it just can’t be. I told as much, and said I thin…

Apparently, Usnea are sensitive to SOx pollution, and that has dropped greatly (over 90%) in Finland since 1990’s (early 90’s would be about when I was taught this, so that’d explain). NOx is the second one, but not as bad. High smokestacks have also made the pollution much more diffuse. To quote h…

I havent heard the no cities thing. I have seen them in several cities. Growing off all sorts of things. Looking at usnea obs in some of the cities I have been in I see several usneas, which are ones I would expect. " They vary in colour from pale green to yellow-green, grey-green, reddish, or vari…

All good, working in a national park visitor centre, my fave questions are ones along the lines of “I noticed that X, what/why/how is that”. Its always interesting to figure those things out.

Yeah. One of the coolest things was when I was working at a city bureau in the info. Normally, it was just routine, but sometimes people had really interesting questions. There was a wall relief next to the info, but it had no labels or markings. One time, a couple asked me about it, and I had to an…

There are plenty of Usnea obsevations in San Francsico, FWIW: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=854&subview=map&taxon_id=67747 Mostly in the bigger parks.

Usnea in city. How?

Nature Talk

Ajott December 26, 2025, 10:08am 3

Well, I am not at all an lichen expert, but I think I have seen them in cities as well, e.g

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/317738723

Topic		Replies	Views
Synanthropic Californian lichens Nature Talk	2	477	July 22, 2019
iNaturalist in New York City - What to do? General question	45	2071	April 2, 2023
Wild in an urban place? Nature Talk question , fun	26	3466	June 22, 2019
Adaptation of species in response to urban environments Nature Talk	14	2030	August 30, 2022
Common urban wildlife in international cities Nature Talk	45	1962	November 15, 2023

Usnea in city. How?

Related topics