ask Dr. LJ

[eub]

Is there any reason I should try to keep my car from being overgrown by lichen?

Besides, I guess, sheer aerodynamics?

Comments

[pielology.livejournal.com]

Rust prevention? I don't know what lichens use to attach to their chosen substrates but it seems unlikely to be good for car bodies.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

Well, there are issues with your engine and exhaust system getting dirty. The grime can actually damage your components, and, certainly any grit getting in your engine would be bad. (This, of course, is addressed by washing the underbody, not the top side, so it may not address lichen.)

If you have scratches on metal parts you'll want to keep them clean and dry. (Or, you know, touch them up so no metal is exposed.) I think each of these is less of an issue here, where the is no salt on the road, than on the east coast.

Pure lichen, though? I have noticed that the rubber seals around windows and door seem to degrade more quickly where they are dirty (both grit and plant life). (Perhaps mold accumulates in otherwise high stress areas?) Your car's life-expectancy may not be long enough to worry about this (or rotted exhaust for that matter), but i'll have to replace my seals to get the life out of the engine, so i'm not sure it is something that i should be so studiously ignoring.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

another question for Car Talk - i always have questions for them, but i don't know that i've tuned into the show since i moved to Seattle, so i can't ask.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Outside or inside?

Thanks to a leaky window, I once had mushrooms growing on the carpet of my Buick's back seat. Believe it or not, there are those who still tease me about it thirty years later.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember there are some photoautotrophic lichens and others that pick up their nutrients and structure-making material from dust, but an awful lot of them have the fungal component extracting minerals from the substrate. That'd be quite not good for car bodies, yeah.

As it happens, if the lichens are growing on the aft half of the car, it might actually improve the car's aerodynamics through boundary layer control.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll clean off half the car, for science.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Synthetic or natural-fiber carpet? I wonder. And what species of mushrooms.

Exterior lichen only in my case.

[bork.livejournal.com]

Lichen?

May attract stray reindeer herds, but other than that, none that I can think of.

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

For some reason, this comes to mind:

http://mudhead.uottawa.ca/~pete/beard.html

[shandrew.livejournal.com]

Lichen could help keep the hornets away.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shandrew/3327239941/sizes/l/