Cedar Vulture Lichen

Cedar Vultures are a lichen which grows atop cedar tree branches. They are named Cedar Vultures because, for the longest time, people erroneously believed that it was a fungus which fed upon the dead and decaying wood. They are also named for their odd appearance. During the day, they are green like many lichens, but at night, parts of the lichen appear to turn bright red or sickly white until sunrise.

Uses & Byproducts

Cedar Vultures feature prominently in the areas where it grows as an ingredient in food, medicine, and dye. While the lichen is technically edible, it is not palatable. It has no flavor except for a strong bitter taste regardless of how it is prepared. It is also sometimes used as part of medicinal poultices placed on injuries, but this addition is more traditional than effective. Some doctors in the past were notorious for putting Cedar Vulture lichen into their pills. Many people sought these pills out, believing that it must have had some benefit because of its strong taste.

Market Crashing Purple Dye

The most beneficial use of Cedar Vulture lichens is as a natural dye. Cedar Vultures naturally contain orchil, which is a vibrant purple dye that can be produced cheaply but is prone to fading. Cedar Vultures which live upon Osek Purple Junipers, however, produce another purple-producing chemical which is commonly called hes. When the chemicals hes and orchil are combined and allowed to ferment in ammonia for approximately three weeks, they produce a beautifully dark, nearly permanent purple dye.The purple shade that this chemical combination produces is called Vulture Dye.
When the dye was first discovered and produced for trade, the purple dye market crashed. There were even plots devised to exterminate Cedar Vulture lichens and their trees entirely by angered merchants and royalty, but they ultimately failed because they did not understand how to identify problematic trees, did not know that lichen wasn't a mushroom, and the crafty locals who kept them in the dark while growing it on their backyard wood piles.

by Jules A.

Location

Where there are cedar trees, there are Cedar Vulture lichens.

Native Planet

Likely Aravu, since they appear on both planets and Aravu has had them since the dawn of Yashelin color dyeing. How it reached the planet of Kivria? That is undetermined.

Conservation Status

Lichens are not protected by any laws or tracked in any official capacity, but there is significally less lichen than before.