Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow . A northern relative of our southern reindeer mosses, which as far as I can tell no creatures eat routinely, is an important food in the arctic regions. Lichens can survive in that harsh part of the world as they stop physiological processes in winter, when there’s no liquid water. When snows and ice thaw in spring, this organism, a combination of a fungus and an alga, hydrates and photosynthesis and growth start