# Lichen for Trees?



## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

I was in Michaels and just walked through the lichen area. I saw some bags of lichen, small detail I think would work for tree leaves if I can find "branches" or make from twigs. I am O scale but trees are all sizes. Anybody else try this?


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

The lichen looks rather like lichen if you bother/would eventually want to take 'ground level' or up-close images of your layout. It doesn't really matter what scale, the lens and a good sensor will show the stringy nature of the lichen.

You can help by adding some flocking, but if much of the lichen shows, it had better look like twigs and branches, meaning you'll want to spray it brown/grey.

You might get differing opinions...


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

I tried lichen for tree foliage once and it didn't turn out all that good.
This was in HO by the way.


Magic


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## 65steam (Dec 18, 2019)

I used lichen for my trees and have been quite pleased with how they turned out. Note, however, that after applying the lichen to the armatures I applied spray adhesive and then thoroughly covered the lichen with ground foam. I also carefully trimmed out any pieces that still looked stringy.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

If you're shopping in the craft store, Caspia makes pretty good tree armatures. That's essentially what "SuperTrees" are. As far as foliage, lichen is kind of old-school, but well-timed lichen will work. I personally prefer poly fiber on a plastic armature, or on one made of sedum (but that's because I have a bunch of them in my garden).


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Maybe I was looking at Moss. It looked like a good solution to tree leaves. I was just going to get real tree branches, twigs really, in the yard for the trunks.


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

The very best two items for tree armatures are sage-brush twigs and the small woody plants you can pull up with roots intact. Cut off what is above ground, invert, dry, and you have a fantastic armature. Sedum and yarrow do okay, but they don't really look like a real tree (with which I am familiar, so this is just me speaking...) unless you cover the little branchlets on the flowers with some polyfiber and then spray with adhesive, and/or paint and cover immediately with some flocking of a suitable size and colour.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

mesenteria said:


> The very best two items for tree armatures are sage-brush twigs and the small woody plants you can pull up with roots intact. Cut off what is above ground, invert, dry, and you have a fantastic armature. Sedum and yarrow do okay, but they don't really look like a real tree (with which I am familiar, so this is just me speaking...) unless you cover the little branchlets on the flowers with some polyfiber and then spray with adhesive, and/or paint and cover immediately with some flocking of a suitable size and colour.


That's what it means to use them as tree ARMATURES. Glue 2-3 stalks together, fill gaps with putty, and paint gray or green gray, trim the florets off and shape the top as desired. Apply poly fiber and leaf flocking.


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## pjmills (Jun 14, 2021)

Lichens on trees are a unique organism because they are actually a symbiotic relationship between two organisms — fungus and algae. The fungus grows on the tree and can collect moisture, which the algae needs. The algae, in return, can create food from the energy of the sun, which feeds the fungus


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

pjmills said:


> Lichens on trees are a unique organism because they are actually a symbiotic relationship between two organisms — fungus and algae. The fungus grows on the tree and can collect moisture, which the algae needs. The algae, in return, can create food from the energy of the sun, which feeds the fungus


Well, OK, but that's not what we're talking about. This thread is about using a product marketed as lichen (although I believe it is actually a species of moss) to simulate trees on model railroad layouts.


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