Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a fungus and a photosynthetic partner which grow together. One of these, Altissima, is extremely rare but could not be described as a kaleidoscopic beauty. Even climbers of Galdhøpiggen are likely to overlook the species, which is mostly grey but it can have a yellowish hue. (Photo: Mapping of Norwegian lecideoid lichens)

The lichen that only likes Galdhøpiggen

The lichen species Altissima has never been found anywhere else than the summit of Norway’s highest mountain – Galdhøpiggen.

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In 1947 the Swedish botanist and lichenologist Gunnar Degelius climbed to the top of Norway’s highest mountain, where he found a type of crustose (crusty) lichen he didn’t recognise.

The following year, Lecidea altissima (“the Lecidea lichen that grows highest up”) was described in a research article about lichens in Southern Norway by Degelius’s colleague Adolf Hugo Magnusson.

In the 67 years that have passed since Degelius ascended Galdhøpiggen, Altissima still hasn’t been found elsewhere on the planet.

Trampled by hiking boots

Researchers from Oslo’s Botanical Museum and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Trondheim were full of anticipation when they climbed up to the top of Galdhøpiggen to see if the lichen was still around.

On a summer day up to a thousand people make the trek up to the peak of Galdhøpiggen, the highest spot in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, at 2,469 metres. Oddly, the rare lichen Altissima has managed to cling to life here too. (Photo: Paul Kleiven, NTB scanpix)

“We found it, almost at the top!”

“At the extreme summit Altissima had been trampled to shreds by hikers. But it still thrives just a little to the side of the peak,” reports lichen researcher Reidar Haugan.

Will you now propose a ban on walking at the summit Galdhøpiggen?

“No, we wouldn’t do that,” replied Haugan, with a chuckle.

Gunnar Degelius, who discovered the lichen atop Galdhøpiggen in 1947, was probably Sweden’s most renowned lichenologist. (Photo from “The Lichenologist”, the journal of the British Lichen Society)

But Altissima will certainly be added to the roughly 4,000 red-listed species found in the Norwegian landscape.

Haugan and colleagues at the Natural History Museum in Oslo have DNA tested the Galdhøpiggen lichen and thus confirmed that it is a unique species.

But now its Latin name will be changed from Lecidea altissima to Miriquidica altissima. The researchers determined it belongs to the genus Miriquidica rather than the big lichen genus Lecidea, as Gunnar Degelius and Hugo Magnusson believed when they named it.

Norway as a lichen land

The trek up Galdhøpiggen that Haugan took with Harald Bratli of NINA was part of the project “Mapping of Norwegian lecideoid lichens”, which was run by the Natural History Museum in Oslo and financed by the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre.

Reidar Haugan at work in the field just a few metres from the top of Galdhøpiggen. He had to use a hammer and chisel to break off chunks of rock with attached lichen. Note part of the roof of the summit cabin, barely visible at the upper right. (Private photo)

Reidar Haugan says the project's researchers in have discovered several new lichen species.

“We now know of over 2,000 lichen species in this country. Norway might be the nation in the world with the greatest number of different lichen species.”

“Considering the quantity of lichen species in Norway in relation to its geographic size, we are guaranteed to be the country in the world with the most fascinating lichen species. We have extraordinarily large climatic, geological and geographical differences and many kinds of natural habitats where lichen contributes as a significant part of the local biodiversity,” says Haugan.

“We find new things all the time. We have exciting things to study,” the scientist says.

DNA analyses are now a common practice in lichenology.

Lots of lichen species that appear indistinguishable turn out to be different when scientists investigate their genetic material. Such look-alikes which cannot interbreed are called cryptic species.

Lichenologists are constantly debating where to draw the lines in the categorization and quantification of individual lichen species.

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Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no

 

Translated by: Glenn Ostling

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