Great Information! Thanks for sharing. So the story telling has broght out so many details about Lichens. Nabhaji the one shown in these potographs is Dagadful. In the photo where many ingradients are shown it is the one next to green , which has been sent as isolated photo also. Tried to get the information about sarate, could not get it, let me see i will try and keep trying unless the name is something different. madhuri
--- On Wed, 19/1/11, Inderjeet Sethi <ikseth...@gmail.com> wrote: From: Inderjeet Sethi <ikseth...@gmail.com> Subject: [efloraofindia:60664] Lichens To: "indiantreepix" <indiantreepix@googlegroups.com> Date: Wednesday, 19 January, 2011, 10:52 AM Dear All, This is a portion of information about lichens as food. The attached pic was taken in a local market selling masala ingredients. Lichens for food: There are records of lichens being used as food by many different human cultures across the world.Lichens are eaten by people in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and perhaps elsewhere. Often lichens are merely famine foods eaten in times of dire needs, but in some cultures lichens are a staple food or even a delicacy. Two problems often encountered with eating lichens are that they usually contain mildly toxic secondary compounds, and that lichen polysaccharides are generally indigestible to humans. Many human cultures have discovered preparation techniques to overcome these problems. Lichens are often thoroughly washed, boiled, or soaked in ash water to help remove secondary compounds. In the past Cetraria islandica (Iceland moss) was an important human food in northern Europe and Scandinavia, and was cooked in many different ways, such as bread, porridge, pudding, soup, or salad. Bryoria fremonii was an important food in parts of North America, where it was usually pit cooked. Cladina rangiferina, or reindeer lichen , is a staple food of reindeer and caribou in the arctic. These lichens provide an important component of the ground cover grazed by animals and are also used by Laplanders to make hay for their animals. Northern peoples in North America and Siberia traditionally eat the partially digested lichen after they remove it from the rumen of caribou that have been killed. It is often called 'stomach icecream'. In India, and other centers of curry powder production, garam masala sauce contains certain lichens used as bulking agents. Many invertebrates (insects, mites and sluges) also use lichens as food. They may also be eaten by a number of large hoofed mammals. -- ~ik~ Dr.Inderjeet Kaur Sethi Associate Professor Department of Botany SGTB Khalsa College University of Delhi Delhi-110007 M: 9818775237
