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Lichen uses by people: Perfume and Misc.

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Burlap bags with the lichen, Pseudevernia furfuracea in a warehouse in France. The lichen is collected locally for use in making "concrète", an ingredient in the manufacture of perfume.
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The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
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The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
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The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
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The lichen is cooked in vats to extract the concrète.
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The liqued concrète, with a highly concentrated essence of lichen scent, is poured off into large cans. The cans will be shipped to Grasse, the center of the French perfume industry.
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When dry the concréte, has the consistency of wax. The manager of the factory checks the fragrance of a test sample.
In an interview for the Wall Street Journal Magazine, 2009, Jean-Claude Ellena, Master Perfumer for Hermès said, "I was an apprentice essential oilmaker in Grasse at the age of 16, on the night shift. Among other essential oils, we made a lot of oakmoss, and after I'd put the distiller on, I'd lie down on a bed of it and sleep."
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Shirt and leggings made of Bryoria lichen. Originally from southern British Columbia, the clothing is part of the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I wish to thank the Museum for permission to photograph the articles.
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Detail of the Bryoria shirt.
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Bryoria cap with ermine
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Bryoria shoes.
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Cooked Bryoria looks a bit like asphalt.
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The shrubbery scenery for this HO scale model train is made from lichens.
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The shrubbery scenery for this HO scale model train is made from lichens.
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Some commercial products that use lichen.
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This pattern, a sort of pictograph, was found in northern New Mexico. It was created by scraping away some of the lichen growing on the stone, and it may be many decades old.


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