V. COLOUR OF LICHENS
The thalli of many lichens, more especially of those associated with blue-green gonidia, are hygroscopic, and it frequently happens that any addition of moisture affects the colour by causing the gelatinous cell-walls to swell, thus rendering the tissues more transparent and the green colour of the gonidia more evident. As a general rule it is the dry state of the plant that is referred to in any discussion of colour.
In the large majority of species the colouring is of a subdued tone—soft bluish-grey or ash-grey predominating. There are, however, striking exceptions, and brilliant yellow and white thalli frequently form a conspicuous feature of vegetation. Black lichens are rare, but occasionally the very dark brown of foliaceous species such as Gyrophora or of crustaceous species such as Verrucaria maura or Buellia atrata deepens to the more sombre hue.
A. Origin of Lichen-Colouring
The colours of lichens may be traced to several different causes.
a. Colour given by the Algal Constituent. As examples may be cited most of the gelatinous lichens, Ephebaceae, Collemaceae, etc. which owe, as in Collema, their dark olivaceous-green appearance, when somewhat moist, to the enclosed dark-green gonidia, and their black colour, when dry, to the loss of transparency. When the thallus is of a thin texture as in Collema nigrescens, the olivaceous hue may remain constant. Leptogium Burgessii, another thin plant of the same family, is frequently of a purplish hue owing to the purple colour of the gonidial Nostoc cells. The dull-grey crustaceous thallus of the Pannariaceae becomes more or less blue-green when moistened, and the same change has been observed in the Hymenolichens, Cora, etc.
In Coenogonium, the alga is some species of Trentepohlia, a filamentous genus mostly yellow, which often gives its colour to the slender lichen filaments, the covering hyphae being very scanty. Other filamentous species, such as Usnea barbata, etc., are persistently greenish from the bright-green Protococcaceous cells lying near the surface of the thalline strands. Many of the furfuraceous lichens are greenish from the same cause, especially when moist, as are also the larger lichens, Physcia ciliaris, Stereocaulons, Cladonias and others.
b. Colour due to Lichen-Acids. These substances, so characteristic of lichens, are excreted from the hyphae, and lie in crystals on the outer walls; they are generally most plentiful on exposed tissues such as the cortex of the upper surface or the discs of the apothecia. Many of these crystals are colourless and are without visible effect, except in sometimes whitening the surface, strikingly exemplified in Thamnolia vermicularis[884]; but others are very brightly coloured. These latter belong to two chemical groups and are found in widely separated lichens[885]:
1. Derivatives of pulvinic acid which are usually of a bright-yellow colour. They are the colouring substance of Letharia vulpina, a northern species, not found in our islands, of Cetraria pinastri and C. juniperina[886] which inhabit mountainous or hilly regions. The crustaceous species, Lecidea lucida and Rhizocarpon geographicum, owe their colour to rhizocarpic acid.
The brilliant yellow of the crusts of some species of Caliciaceae is due to the presence of the substance calycin, while coniocybic acid gives the greenish sulphur-yellow hue to Coniocybe furfuracea. Epanorin colours the hyphae and soredia of Lecanora epanora a citrine-yellow and stictaurin is the deep-yellow substance found in the medulla and under surface of Sticta aurata and S. crocata.
2. The second series of yellow acids are derivatives of anthracene. They include parietin, formerly described as chrysophanic acid, which gives the conspicuous colour to Xanthoriae and to various wall lichens; solorinic acid, the crystals of which cover the medullary hyphae and give a reddish-grey tone to the upper cortex of Solorina crocea, and nephromin which similarly colours the medulla of Nephromium lusitanicum a deep yellow, the colour of the general thallus being, however, scarcely affected. In this group must also be included the acids that cause the yellow colouring of the medulla in Parmelia subaurifera and the yellowish thallus of some Pertusariae.
In many cases, changes in the normal colouring[887] are caused by the breaking up of the acids on contact with atmospheric or soil ammonia. Alkaline salts are thus formed which may be oxidized by the oxygen in the air to yellow, red, brown, violet-brown or even to entirely black humus-like products which are insoluble in water. These latter substances are frequently to be found at the base of shrubby lichens or on the under surface of leafy forms that are closely appressed to the substratum.
c. Colour due to Amorphous Substances. These are the various pigments which are deposited in the cell-walls of the hyphae. The only instance, so far as is known, of colours within the cell occurs in Baeomyces roseus, in which species the apothecia owe their rose-colour to oil-drops in the cells of the paraphyses, and in Lecidea coarctata where the spores are rose-coloured when young. In a few instances the colouring matter is excreted (Arthonia gregaria and Diploschistes ocellatus); but Bachmann[888], who has made an extended study of this subject and has examined 120 widely diversified lichens, found that with few exceptions the pigment was in the membranes.
Bachmann was unable to determine whether the pigments were laid down by the protoplasm or were due to changes in the cell-wall. The middle layer, he found, was generally more deeply coloured than the inner one, though that was not universal. In other cases the outer sheath was the darkest, especially in cortices one to two cells thick such as those of Parmelia olivacea, P. fuliginosa and P. revoluta, and in the brown thick-walled spores of Physcia stellaris and of Rhizocarpon geographicum. Still another variation occurs in Parmelia tristis in which the dark cortical cells show an outer colourless membrane over the inner dark wall.
The coloured pigments are mainly to be found in the superficial tissues, but if the thallus is split by areolation, as in crustaceous lichens, the internal hyphae may be coloured like those of the outer cortex wherever they are exposed. The hyphae of the gonidial layer are persistently colourless, but the lower surface and the rhizoids of many foliose lichens are frequently very deeply stained, as are the hypothalli of crustaceous species.
The fruiting bodies in many different families of lichens have dark coloured discs owing to the abundance of dark-brown pigment in the paraphyses. In these the walls, as determined by Bachmann, are composed generally of an inner wall, a second outer wall, and the outermost sheath which forms the middle lamella between adjacent cells. In some species the second wall is pigmented, in others the middle lamella is the one deeply coloured. The hymenium of many apothecia and the hyphae forming the amphithecium are often deeply impregnated with colour. The wall hyphae of the pycnidia are also coloured in some forms; more frequently the cells round the opening pore are more or less brown.
The presence of these coloured substances enables the cell-wall to resist chemical reactions induced by the harmful influences of the atmosphere or of the substratum. The darker the cell-wall and the more abundant the pigment, the less easily is the plant injured either by acids or alkalies. The coloured tips of the paraphyses thus give much needed protection to the long lived sporiferous asci, and the dark thalline tissues prevent premature rotting and decay.
d. Enumeration of Amorphous Pigments:
1. Green. Bachmann found several different green pigments: “Lecidea-green,” colouring red with nitric acid, is the dark blue-green or olive-green (smaragdine) of the paraphyses of many apothecia in the Lecideaceae, and may vary to a lighter blue; it appears almost black in thalline cells[889]. “Aspicilia-green” occurs in the thalline margin and sometimes in the epithecium of the fruits of species of Aspicilia; it becomes a brighter green on the application of nitric acid. “Bacidia-green,” also a rare pigment, becomes violet with the same acid; it is found in the epithecium of Bacidia muscorum and Bacidia acclinis (Lecideaceae). “Thalloidima-green” in the apothecia of some species of Biatorina is changed to a dirty-red by nitric acid and to violet by potash. Still another termed “rhizoid-green” gives the dark greenish colour to the rhizoids of Physcia pulverulenta and P. aipolia and to the spores of some species of Physcia and Rhizocarpon. It becomes more olive-green with potash.
2. Blue. A very rare colour in lichens, so far found in only a few species, Biatora (Lecidea) atrofusca, Lecidea sanguinaria and Aspicilia flavida f. coerulescens. It forms a layer of amorphous granules embedded in the outer wall of the paraphyses, becoming more dense towards the epithecium. A few granules are also present in the hymenium.
3. Violet. “Arthonia-violet” as it is called by Bachmann is a constituent of the tissues of Arthonia gregaria, occurring in minute masses always near the cortical cells; it is distinct from the bright cinnabarine granules present in every part of the thallus.
4. Red. Several different kinds of red have been distinguished: “Urceolaria-red,” visible as an interrupted layer on the upper side of the medulla in the thallus of Diploschistes ocellatus, a continental species with a massive, crustaceous, whitish thallus that shows a faint rose tinge when wetted. “Phialopsis-red” is confined to the epithecium of the brightly coloured apothecia of Phialopsis rubra. “Lecanora-red,” by which Bachmann designates the purplish colour of the hymenium, is an unfailing character of Lecanora atra; the colouring substance is lodged in the middle lamella of the paraphysis cells; it occurs also in Rhizocarpon geographicum and in Rh. viridiatrum; it becomes more deeply violet with potash. M. C. Knowles[890] noted the blue colouring of Rh. geographicum growing in W. Ireland near the sea and she ascribed it to an alkaline reaction. Two more rare pigments, “Sagedia-red” and “Verrucaria-red,” are found in species of Verrucariaceae. These tinge the calcareous rocks in which the lichens are embedded a beautiful rose-pink. They are scarcely represented in our country.
5. Brown. A frequent colouring substance, but also presenting several different kinds of pigment which may be arranged in two groups:
(1) Substances with some characteristic chemical reaction. These are of somewhat rare occurrence: “Bacidia-brown” in the middle lamella of the paraphyses of Bacidia fuscorubella stains a clear yellow with acids or a violet colour with potash; “Sphaeromphale-brown,” which occurs in the perithecia and in the cortex of Staurothele clopismoides, becomes deep olive-green with potash, changing to yellow-brown on the application of sulphuric acid; “Segestria-brown” in Porina lectissima changes to a beautiful violet colour with sulphuric acid, while “Glomellifera-brown,” which is confined to the outer cortical cells of the upper surface of Parmelia glomellifera, becomes blue with nitric and sulphuric acids, but gives no reaction with potash. Rosendahl[891] confirmed Bachmann’s discovery of this colour and further located it in corresponding cells of Parmelia prolixa and P. locarensis.
(2) Substances with little or no chemical reaction. There is only one such to be noted: “Parmelia-brown,” usually a very dark pigment, which is lodged in the outer membranes of the cells. It becomes a clearer colour with nitric acid, and if the reagent be sufficiently concentrated, some of the pigment is dissolved out. Some tissues, such as the lower cortex of some Parmeliae, may be so impregnated and hardened, that nothing short of boiling acid has any effect on the cells; membranes less deeply coloured and changed, such as the cortex of the Gyrophorae, become disintegrated with such drastic treatment. With potash the colour becomes darker, changing from a clear brown to olivaceous-brown or-green, or in some cases, as in a more faintly coloured epithecium, to a dirty-yellow, but the lighter colour produced there is largely due to the swelling up of the underlying tissues to which the potash penetrates readily between the paraphyses.
“Parmelia-brown” is a colouring substance present in the dark epithecium and hypothecium of the fruits of many widely diverse lichens, and in the cortical cells and rhizoids of many thalli. In some plants the thallus is brown both above and below, in others, as in Parmelia revoluta, etc. only the under surface is dark-coloured.
e. Colour due to Infiltration. There are several crustaceous lichens that are rusty-red, the colour being due to the presence of iron. These lichens occur on siliceous rocks of gneiss, granite, etc., and more especially on rocks rich in iron. Iron as a constituent of lichens was first demonstrated by John[892] in Ramalina fraxinea and R. calicaris. Grimbel[893] proved that the colour of rust lichens was due to an iron salt, and Molisch[894] by microscopic examination located minute granules of ferrous oxide as incrustations on the hyphae of the upper surface of the thallus. Molisch held that the rhizoids or penetrating hyphae dissolved the iron from the rocks by acid secretions. Rust lichens however grow on rocks that are frequently under water in which the iron is already present.
Among “rusty” lichens are the British forms, Lecanora lacustris, the thallus of which is normally white, though generally more or less tinged with iron; it inhabits rocks liable to inundation. L. Dicksonii owes its ferruginous colour to the same influences. Lecidea contigua var. flavicunda and L. confluens f. oxydata are rusty conditions of whitish-grey lichens.
Nilson[895] found rusty lichens occurring frequently in the Sarak-Gebirge, more especially on glacier moraines where they were liable, even when uncovered by snow, to be flooded by water from the higher reaches. It is the thallus that is affected by the iron, rarely if ever are apothecia altered in colour.
Bachmann’s Pigment Reactions
| Name of Pigment or Lichen | Colour | KOH | NH₃ | Ba(OH)₂ | HNO₃ | H₂SO₄ | Special Reactions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lecidea-green | green | copper or brick-red | KOH then HCl: blue | ||||
| Aspicilia-green | green | HNO₃: brighter green | |||||
| Bacidia-green | green | violet | violet | HCl: violet | |||
| Thalloidima-green | green | violet | indistinctly purple-red | HCl: indistinctly purple-red | |||
| Rhizoid-green | bluish-green | olive-green to brown | olive-green | ||||
| Biatora atrofusca | blue | dissolves with greenish-blue colour | violet, then yellow, then decolourized | dissolves | H₂O insoluble | ||
| Phialopsis rubra | brick-red | dirty purple-red | violet | ||||
| Lecanora-red | purple-red | deep violet | |||||
| Sagedia declivum | bluish-red | blue (green) | greenish-blue then grey-black | blue | |||
| Verrucaria Hoffmanni f. purpurascens | rose-red | dark-green | dark-green | KOH then HNO₃ then H₂SO₄: violet crystals | |||
| Bacidia fuscorubella | yellowish-brown | violet | violet | violet | |||
| Sphaeromphale clopismoides | leather-brown | deep olive-green | KOH, then H₂SO₄, then HNO₃: blackish | ||||
| Segestria lectissima—perithecia | yellow-brown | rose-red | bright yellow | dilute H₂SO₄: bright yellow | |||
| Segestria lectissima—entire tissue | brown and colourless | Strong H₂SO₄: deep violet, then grey | |||||
| Parmelia glomellifera | leather-brown | blue, then violet, at last grey | CaCl₂O₂: blue, then grey; finally decolourized | ||||
| Parmelia-brown | yellow to blackish-brown | dirty- to olive-brown | bright red-brown |