Your welcome both. As for Texas... usnea has more varieties than one cares to count, but all usable. It's prime function is as an external antibiotic, but large amounts when leached can be eaten or added to soups and the like... they are almost all carbohydrates. Just make sure you have a distinct white central core. Even the smallest piece has it but it is far easier to see on the larger pieces. Usually it is pure white but can occasionally be cream colored or slightly off white.

Thank you for your time and energy sharing these with us all…stay blessed

It works against gamma A positive bacteria.

Green Deane, you've been busy! Thanks for all your hard work, great videos.

Thank you

I read that out west the Nez Perce use a lichen also referred to as "Old Man's Beard", but they call it Wila, and they steam it in an earth oven for 3 days to make a sort of confection.

thanks!!! i have seen this growing in central texas.

Thank you 😊

Yes, it does already.

Check for the white core, which also stretches. It has many uses against fungus and gamma A bacteria, as a tincture, tea, even a douche. Usnic acid is quite the anti-bacterial material. There is even some research that says it is good for gangrene.

Well, I wish but no...I am running out of season and time. But it is in the can and should be uploaded tomorrow. And video 51 is done. If I can get a melothria pendula to cooperated that will be #52 and then maybe a follow up for #9 to close the season.

Garlic has some antibaterial qualities, but usnea has it beat. One uses what one has on hand.

This is fabulous bushcraft knowledge!

thanks again!

Thank you for the new antibiotic in my bushcraft med. kit.

I finally found some of this lichen! It grows in the most humid swamps in my area, and the areas are super mossy, and bryophytes abound everywhere there (liverwort, hornwort, lichen, moss). Also, I don't have to worry about spanish moss and checking if the usnea has a white core in zone 6b Ontario Canada, do I?

When I was growing up in British Columbia I saw a lot of moss hanging from the Garry Oak and Douglas Fir trees. I guess this is wolf lichen. I don't see any of this in Alberta. I see some entries about Usnea in Native American Ethnobotany. The Nitinaht and the Makah used maidenhair moss for dressing wounds, diapers and scrubbing salmon

Also do I have to worry about the white core vs Tillandsia usneoids black core since I'm where it gets hard frost in zone 6b Ontario, Canada? I figure I don't since spanish moss doesn't grow here besides as house plants.

So when making teas, you need to change the water multiple times before actually drinking it? I've made it a few times but never changed the water, and never used more than 2-3tbsp of the Usnea each time.

When harvesting usnea do you dry it right away or how do you take care of it after you take it home?

If you are referring to an infection, I am not a doctor, but the usnea has a long and credible history of working well on wounds. If you are referring to drawing out perhaps an astringent acorn poultice would do. I am not in the medical field so be your own judge about these things. What kind of spider was it?

I have not seen Bryoria fermontii but I read it has to be rid of vulpinic acid to be edible. That's interesting because of the two toxic lichen, Wolf Lichen (Letharia vulpina) is harmful because of vulpinic acid. I imagine it is the amount and other elements.

Different etiologies I would imagine. Oregano is not in my Medicinal Plants of Greece book. But if I remember correctly the main element in oregano is an oil and in usnea is an acid. That would be how they would differ.

@gelflingfaysuzanne No no... Usnea attaches to one point, is round, hairy, and has a stretchy white core. The two toxic ones are Wolf lichen, which is lime green, and like a beard. Sunshine powder lichen is yellow like a school bus and posdery. Edible Lichen must be soaked in water to reduce the acid to make them edible, usually cooked. Even then they are a famine food.

I wonder if it would work as a poultice on spider bites to draw out any infection caused by dying flesh or skin? Spider got me yesterday and tomorrow the bite should be opening on its own and draining a little bit.

It's called the Nanny State.

Very tiny apider and brownish. I went outside at night to get my sleeping bag off the clothesline and guess it crawled up my pantsleg and bit me at the top of my calf. My leg would have been warmer than the chilly dew-soaked grass I was standing in. It's not a serious spider bite. Looks like an infected mosquito bite. I'll try the green acorn astringent method. Spider bites take about a month to 6 weeks to heal for me. A brown recluse bite was infected all summer and left a dime-sized scar.

so is white the the only really defining factor in its edibility other than the bright green one out west?

Is this the same thing in Florida call Reindeer Moss?

It may have been Bryoria fremontii, a commonly eaten lichen by the BC first peoples and elsewhere. It's my understanding that it can be very very mild and is useful as a survival food, but different communities of the lichen taste different. 'course, you didn't give a description of it other than what trees it was on, so I really don't know what it was ;)

Does garlic kill friendly bacteria? Also witch one is stronger garlic or usnea? I was going to ask the friendly bacteria question but I was not the only one with the question.=)

You said that it has anti-biotic characteristics. Does this mean that, when taken internally, it would tend to wipe out the normal, healthy bacteria living in our gut? 'cause that'd suck... though I suppose we could take it in small doses and get 'select' for the benefitial bacteria that has resistances to the anti-biotic properties... Anyway, another great vid!

Does this grow in southeast Missouri?

wAT COLOR is the CorE? usmaya?

@FaceFink The stretchy inner core of Usnea is white.

Look for the white core. As for lichen, of the 20,000 only two are toxic and you'd have to eat a lot of them. Even the lichen on grave stones is edible with the right preparation... not tasty but many a person has survived on lichen.

Then the next two are for you....

White