Post by FOTH on Oct 2, 2011 12:40:52 GMT -6
Usnea Barbata:
Year Round Food and Medicine Resource
Year Round Food and Medicine Resource
Usnea, also known as “Old Man’s Beard,” is a lichen that commonly grows on the branches and trunks of evergreen trees here in the Rocky Mountains, and can also be found in various other climates throughout the country.
There are many species of “hair lichens,” as usnea is known, and a simple way to see that you have the correct one is to pull apart some of the strands and make sure the inner core is white and stretchy, like elastic.
Usnea has many medicinal uses, as the usnic acid it contains prevents the growth of many types of bacteria, including staphylococcus, streptococcus, and pneumococcus. A wad of the lichen, pulled directly off the tree and applied to a wound, makes a good antiseptic dressing.
Various Indian tribes used the lichen as wound dressings, feminine hygiene products, and diapers for babies but one of its main uses was as a source of food.
While usnea is composed largely of carbohydrates, grows primarily in the branches of trees and therefore is available even when snow covers the ground, and is a useful addition to a survival diet, the usnic acid that gives it such strong medicinal properties can also be a problem when it comes to using the lichen for food. Usnic acid is bitter, and if too much of it is consumed, can lead to digestive upset and, in extreme cases (not likely unless you are extracting and concentrating the acid), to liver and kidney damage.
Occasionally you can find patches of lichen that are very low in usnic acid and are sweet enough to be eaten as is, but you will most often have to leach it in several changes of water to prepare it for eating. Cold water will work, eventually, but usnic acid is only poorly soluble in water, and you can speed up the process greatly by heating it. You can strain off and save the water from the first boiling, which will have a yellowish tinge, for use as an antiseptic wash. Some of the Indian tribes would steam the lichen by putting a layer of leaves down in a pit over hot coals, adding a thick layer of lichen with more leaves on top, and pouring water over everything. The finished product, after many hours of steaming, was a black goo that could be dried for later use.
Treated to remove most of the acid, usnea is somewhat sweet and pleasant to eat.
Usnea on a blue spruce branch
And on a spruce trunk
The white "elastic" core by which Usnea can be easily identified
A pile gathered in a few minutes from spruce branches on a north-facing slope
All boiled down and ready to eat, after two water changes. Mmm... Not bad at all!
Go out and look in the woods near your house. Perhaps you can find some Usnea to experiment with, and maybe you'll even find some additional uses.
Any ideas?