Here I am just trying to take the bus to Keflavik Airport and and AND
NOOOOO
Firstly, this picture is MOSS. Actual moss-moss. NOT lichen. It is moss In Iceland, so it is Icelandic moss generally, NOT Iceland Moss (common name) specifically, which is, yes, a lichen--Cetraria iselandica. (This is why common names suck so hard)
Cetraria islandica looks like this:
Olive to brown, glossy, leathery, grows with moss, is not moss. Moss and lichen are different things.
Secondly, C. iselandica is a symbiosis between a fungus and a green algae, NOT cyanobacteria. Don't even know where they got that from.
Thirdly, while there is a lot of lichen in Iceland, when you look across the moss fields (the ones I know they are referring to), you are indeed seeing mostly moss.
That's moss, baby! Along with smatterings of vascular plants and lichens, but majority Racomitrium moss!
Also did you know that moss isn't just moss? There are at least 460 species of moss in Iceland, along with nearly 200 species of other terrestrial non-vascular plants! They don't get nearly enough respect, and saying that the moss isn't even moss is like, so bizarre and misinformed? A great example of how little even folks who should be capable of doing the bare minimum of fact checking are relying too much on false sources of info
*cough cough* AI *cough cough*
