Island of the Lichens - December 2010
Waterberg Mountain still holds many secrets – especially when it comes to nature’s little wonders. This is the opinion of German biologist Ulrich Kirschbaum who takes a particular interest in lichens and collected samples of some 30 species during his vacation at Waterberg Wilderness. It turned out that many of these lichens have not been properly identified yet and can only be classified according to genera. The samples were identified by lichen expert Prof. Volkmar Wirth who recently published a book on the lichens of the Namib.
A colourful work of art on sandstone: Caloplaca cinnabarina. The genus name is derived from Greek (kalos = beautiful; plakous = a flat cake); the English vernacular name is Cinnabar orange lichen. Photo: Ulrich Kirschbaum
Based on the estimates of South African lichen expert Dirk Wessels, Kirschbaum reckons that around 140 different species of lichen can be found at Waterberg. According to Wessels many of them are endemic, i.e. they do not occur anywhere else. He says that this could be explained by the fact that Waterberg is isolated - like a relatively rain-laden island in otherwise rather dry surroundings. Waterberg rises to a height of up to 200 metres from the plain and indeed causes cloud to accumulate, with subsequent precipitation; right at the mountain and in the valley average rainfall is noticeably higher than in the plain.
Lichens are not plants but an inseparable symbiosis of a fungus and a photosynthetic partner – usually a green alga or a cyanobacterium. Lichens are classified as fungi because the fungal component is pivotal in several respects. Worldwide there is an estimated 25,000 species of lichens.
Lichen
List of lichens by Ulrich Kirschbaum
Book about Lichens of the Namib by Prof. Volkmar Wirth
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