​by T. Duren Jones
​

Cool on the Outside
The moss hangs like a beard on the pines. When drenched by an afternoon rainstorm, it can even look like hairy, mint-colored Christmas icicles. 
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In the forests, on the trees — I’ve seen this many times in my hikes around the state of Colorado. I saw it again on my hike of Segment 27 of the Colorado Trail in the San Juan Mountains. 

It looks kinda cool, a bit like something out of a primeval scene from a Lord of the Rings movie. Very eerie and atmospheric. The moss hangs like a beard on the pines. When drenched by an afternoon rainstorm, it can even look like hairy, mint-colored Christmas icicles. Pretty in a way; disturbing in another.

The trees that this wispy stuff drapes off of are dead, or dying. But it’s not the fault of this lichen just looking for a place to hang out. It’s not a parasite; it arrived late to the funeral. It often grows on sick or dead trees due to the preexisting loss of canopy leaves or needles, allowing now greater photosynthesis for the Spanish mosslike plant.

Usnea laponica is the scientific name for several species of lichen that generally grow hanging from tree branches. It is referred to as Old Man’s Beard, Beard Lichen, Tree’s Dandruff, A Woman’s Long Hair, or simply Tree Moss. If it does resemble an old man’s beard, then the poor guy would have one that had a greenish tint to it, was all tangled up, and hung from a skeletal frame. Yet, when a tree is clothed in the lichen, it does have a certain otherworldly beauty about it.

I could not help but wonder if I sometimes present a cool-looking exterior (without a green beard) but am sick beneath. Cool on the outside; dead on the inside. I guess I need to just keep reaching for the Light, and try to keep my inner spirit healthy, well grounded, with roots sunk deep into Living Waters. Without continued life and vitality, I don’t want to find myself transformed into something other than what my Creator meant for me to be.

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