Scotts Bluff National Monument - Lichens

Scotts Bluff National Monument by National Parks Service

The lichens of Scotts Bluff National Monument are surprisingly diverse for such a dry area. Sixty-five species of lichens have been identified at the Monument. None of them shows signs of poor air quality, specifically sulfur dioxide. Lichens are able to accumulate chemical elements in excess of their metabolic needs depending on the levels in the substrate and in the air. Lichens are long lived. Chemical analysis of the thallus of the lichens growing in areas of poor air quality will show these elevated levels.

A lichen inventory in 1997 identified sixty-five species within the Monument of which thirty were new state records. The lichens of the Monument grow in four distinct habitats - calcareous rock surfaces, the hardwood trees in the riparian areas, the pine/juniper/cedar trees of the bluffs' summits and the prairie soils. The most species were found growing on the rock surfaces. Only a few were found on the hardwood trees of the riparian areas or on the soils among the grasses of the prairie. This area's low annual precipitation, fourteen and one-half inches, limits the numbers and number of species of lichens found at Scotts Bluff National Monument.