brooklyn1 wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
brooklyn1 wrote:

I have blue rug junipers in my shrubery beds in front of my house.
When I first planted them they looked very puny, they were in 6"
pots. I planted six on each side. After four years they completly
covered the ground so that no weeds grow through. They began to get
lichens growing on the branches so I pruned away those parts. The
Junipers grew back so that it's time to prune again before the
lichens return.

Why is lichen bad? I don't know anything about these prostrate
junipers but in these parts nobody worries about lichen on trees, it
is taken as a sign the air is not polluted and generally left alone.
I haven't seen any indication that it harms trees.


I don't really know if it's "bad". On my blue rug juniper it was a
question of aesthetics, I didn't like the look of it. I knew severe
pruning wouldn't hurt because the deer chewed them down to nubs and
they grew back, in fact during winter the deer eat whatever parts
grow through the fence and during summer it all grows back and more. But I
would assume that lichens, moss, and fungi growing on live
plants makes them parasitic, they must be taking something from the
plant and I assume they give nothing back so it's not symbiotic.

A lichen is a symbiosis between an alga and a fungus, AFAIK it only uses the
tree for support (as it uses rocks) so that the alga can get up into the
light and do photosynthesis.

There are lichens covering the trunks of both my sapling gingko
trees, I'd like to get rid of the ugly things but obviously I can't
prune away the trunks without killing the trees... and I'm not
willing to risk applying even mild household products like vinegar.
Meanwhile the trees are growing, albiet slowly, I just tell myself
that gingkos grow very slowly.

Indeed they do. Mine has hardly chnaged in 5 years while other trees next
to it bound ahead.

David