Nature P.E.I. hopes to make this lichen a new provincial emblem

While P.E.I. already has a provincial flower (lady's slipper), bird (blue jay) and even soil (Charlottetown soil), Nature P.E.I. says something is missing in the emblem family: a provincial lichen.

The push to honour the lichen comes after a public campaign and an online and mail-in vote which closed in April. Nature P.E.I. said of the four lichens up for contention, frayed ramalina was the clear front-runner and winner. 

"We identified four different lichens that we all thought would be good examples and had a bit of a chance for people to look at the pictures and see what they thought, and they were all good looking lichens," said Ian Scott with Nature P.E.I.

"We kind of knew a little bit about where they lived, the habitat, a bit of their lifestyle, if you will."

A unique organism

Scott said many people know lichens as maybe a bit of a nuisance — growing in your trees, on bare rocks or even on your shingles.

"Part of this effort is to try to recognize some of the more humble life forms out there," he said.

"Lichens are one of those ... if they were going to do a Facebook status update or relationship update, it would be 'it's complicated.'"

They are unique in that they do not have roots or extract nutrients from the earth, Scott said.  

"They are basically symbiosis at work …  it shows the interrelationship between living things, but in this case it's primarily fungi and an algae together," he said, adding that the fungi build the filament structure that the algae live within and the algae derive nutrients for them both using photosynthesis.

We're hoping that it'll join the family.— Ian Scott, Nature P.E.I.

"The fungi tends to basically be sort of a little mini-contractor that keeps hauling home sticks of wood and attaching them together."

He said algae makes food out of carbon dioxide, which it can turn into basic sugars.

Scott said lichens cover about six per cent of the world in a variety of climates, but frayed ramalina is mostly found in coastal North America and wooded areas and is a particularly resilient lichen.

"The extremes of wind and salt spray, those kinds of things that are very, very hard on some plants, but it seems to be able to thrive on our conditions," he said.

Next stop: the legislature

Now that the votes are in and the people have chosen the frayed ramalina, Nature P.E.I. has forwarded the lichen choice to Natalie Jameson, minister of environment, water and climate change.

Nature P.E.I. has requested that she submit the frayed ramalina to the legislature in a proposed amendment of the Provincial Emblems and Honours Act. If approved, it would be among the first official lichen emblems in Canada. 

"Our hope is that it brings a little bit of attention to the living world," Scott said. 

"We're hoping that it'll join the family."

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