Q: I am worried about the grayish-green, flaky, roundish spots I am seeing on big tree trunks and branches this spring. I can scratch it off with my fingernails. I think that it is killing my trees.

Answer: That orange growth is lichen, not a rust pathogen. Lichen do not harm the tree or shrub in any way. They tend to grow only on that outer bark and stay there, not growing deeper into live ...

'British soldier' lichen growing on rock. (Clay Wollney) For the most part, lichens growing on trees is a good thing, not harmful to the trees. However, weak or dying trees may have a lot of lichens, ...

Now that the majority of our deciduous plants have dropped their leaves, you may notice gray growths on the trunks of some trees and shrubs in your landscape. Most likely, these are lichens, which, ...

I saw this lichen on a living tree recently. It was growing well, confirming the clean air of Connemara. Paul Dunne, Co Galway This is Flavoparmelia caperata, a large foliose lichen that is sensitive ...

It took us an hour and a half to walk the 100 yards between the library and the village hall. Passers-by gave us curious looks: eight people closely studying the stones in a wall or the trunk of a ...

March in the Northland is a month of great changes and a plethora of nature happenings. It is another month when the weather seems to get the most attention. In the beginning, it is still winter; cold ...

Some folks think lichen is bad for their trees. Those people can be spotted standing out in the hot sun picking little gray-green tufts off their tree trunks like a woodpecker hunting for bugs. But it ...

Some folks think lichen is a bad thing for their trees. These folks can be seen standing out in the hot sun picking little clumps of gray-green tufts off their tree trunks like a woodpecker hunting ...