Lichen uses by people: Perfume and Misc.

Burlap bags with the lichen, Pseudevernia furfuracea in a warehouse in France. The lichen is collected locally for use in making "concrète", an ingredient in the manufacture of perfume.

The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
Image 1

The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
Image 2

The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
Image 3

The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
Image 4

The liqued concrète, with a highly concentrated essence of lichen scent, is poured off into large cans. The cans will be shipped to Grasse, the center of the French perfume industry.

When dry the concréte, has the consistency of wax. The manager of the factory checks the fragrance of a test sample.
In an interview for the Wall Street Journal Magazine, 2009, Jean-Claude Ellena, Master Perfumer for Hermès said, "I was an apprentice essential oilmaker in Grasse at the age of 16, on the night shift. Among other essential oils, we made a lot of oakmoss, and after I'd put the distiller on, I'd lie down on a bed of it and sleep."

Shirt and leggings made of Bryoria lichen. Originally from southern British Columbia, the clothing is part of the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I wish to thank the Museum for permission to photograph the articles.

Detail of the Bryoria shirt.

Bryoria cap with ermine

Bryoria shoes.

Cooked Bryoria looks a bit like asphalt.

The shrubbery scenery for this HO scale model train is made from lichens.
Image 1

The shrubbery scenery for this HO scale model train is made from lichens.
Image 2

Some commercial products that use lichen.

This pattern, a sort of pictograph, was found in northern New Mexico. It was created by scraping away some of the lichen growing on the stone, and it may be many decades old.

Sharnoff Photos
Home Page

Back to:
Lichen Natural History Index

Lichens Home Page