There are over 1000 species of Usnea described so far in the Parmeliaceae family. Generally they are pale grey-green lichens and quite common here on the west coast of British Columbia. It’s also known as old ban’s beard or beard lichen. I’m excited to test out a rumour about something unique Usnea is supposed to do in the dye pot (see Step 4 below).

TLDR: 33 grams of Usnea, 2 x 8 gram skeins of non-mordanted wool. Simmered for one day, one removed at 6.5 pH, pH dropped to 4, simmered one skein for one more hour gave a rufous brown.