A monument, lichens
The project
Passionate about history, old stones, and lichens, I want to highlight the historical heritage while protecting the natural heritage that covers it.
Indeed, highlighting biodiversity and air quality, thanks to lichens, seems to me to be a major asset for tourist development in the plateau municipalities.
Combine a monument (cross, castles, menhirs and dolmens, etc.) bearing witness to the life of the country, with lichens, a guarantee of longevity and low atmospheric pollution.
To carry out this ambitious project, I called on Joseph Bartolomé, a talented photographer specializing in macrophotography.
How does it work?
We go to the site of the monument, after learning about its rich history. We make an initial survey of the species of lichens found there. We make a grid (on photos) of the monument, by codifying the elements and the lichens that cover it.
Then begins a long work of macrophotography, tests with chemical reagents, and scalpel samples for microscopy, to identify the species.
This work can be done in public.
This is followed by a complete report (historical and naturalist) on our website. A quote will be sent to the owners or municipalities that wish it, for the creation of panels on the history of the monument and the life of the lichen, with photos of the species present.
EC01
Xanthoria elegans
Chemical reagents
Microscopy
How did the project come about?
One day, while walking through a small hamlet of basalt stone houses on the Ardèche plateau, I came across a resident busy scrubbing a magnificent façade covered in a splendid red lichen (Xanthoria elegans) with a pressure washer. I quickly went to see him to ask him why he was doing that. He admitted that it was very pretty, but that the "moss" would damage the stones of his house. I explained to him that no, it was not moss, that it had taken decades, even hundreds, for this lichen to develop. On the contrary, it was a sign of good air quality.
Reassured, he stopped this laborious task and the lichen was saved!
I thought to myself that people often make mistakes through ignorance and that sometimes all it takes is a little awareness to change their behavior.
The project “a monument, lichens” was born!!