Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Hobart Nature Preserve is the home to at least three rare plant species, including Methuselah’s beard lichen.
Lichens are unusual in general, but Methuselah’s beard is even more so, hanging from tree branches like a fragile light-green, almost white, thread.
The lichen (usnea longissima) is locally fairly common but generally rare east of the Cascades, said Alice Smith, a botanist with the U.S. Forest Service Sweet Home Ranger…