Ly-kun? Litch-in? However you choose to pronounce these sparse, mossy plants, one thing's for sure - they're totally, like, magic! At least, medieval peasants thought so.
During the Middle Ages, the Doctrine of Signatures (a sort of Medical Dictionary With Added Superstition and Witchcraft) proposed that plants resembling a human body part could be used to treat disorders pertaining to that body part. As such, because of its resemblance to lung tissue, the lichen Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria, taxonomy fans) was used as a totally ineffectual remedy for tuberculosis and other diseases of the lungs.
So ladies and gennelmen, put your HANDS together PLEASE, and give it up for the Mossiest Plant On The Moor, The Hardest-Healing Wort In Showbusiness, the one, the only, LICHEN!!! AWL-RIGHT! Phew.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
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