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Blue Felt Lichen
Local lichen enthusiasts voted blue felt lichen (scientific name: Pectenia plumbea) the official lichen of Nova Scotia in 2019.
Blue felt lichen is blue-grey when dry and turns deep blue when moist. Large and leafy, its shape resembles a scallop shell, with rigid and rounded edges, and its surface is covered in small red-brown fruiting bodies, which some say look like hockey pucks.
The only known species of Pectenia in North America, it is found only in the Atlantic Provinces and northern Maine. It is most prevalent in Nova Scotia where there are 425 recorded sightings.
Blue felt lichen is usually seen in humid low-lying areas near swamps, rivers or lakes, or in humid upland areas near the coast of Nova Scotia. It can be found growing on the trunks of mature hardwood trees such as maple, ash, yellow birch, poplar or eastern cedar.
In 2013, the Department of Natural Resources deemed blue felt lichen a species at risk and classified it is as vulnerable. Acid rain, forestry and air-born pollutants threaten its existence.
The blue felt lichen was declared the Provincial Lichen of Nova Scotia in 2022 by an Act of the House of Assembly.
