Icelandic moss (Cetraria Islandica)

Icelandic moss (Cetraria Islandica)

Icelandic moss is considered a delicacy – at least by reindeer. The bitter aroma of the crop doesn’t seem to matter to them. But even in an Icelandic dish, the moss is used as an ingredient: in the “Fjallagrasasupa”. The cooks remove the bitter substances through a sophisticated preparation process.
There are bittersweaters, mucous substances, enzymes, a little essential oil, betacarotene and vitamins A, B1 and B12 in Icelandic moss. This plant also contains the minerals magnesium, bromine, potassium, silica and iodine.

Icelandic moss doesn’t just grow in Iceland. Moreover, it is – botanically speaking – not moss, it belongs to the lichens. So the name doesn’t really add up. A lichen is a symbiotic unit of a fungus and a whose. They grow bushy, forked or antler-like. Icelandic moss belongs to the heester crust moss (Parmeliaceae). It occurs in Arctic and mountainous areas and grows on moorland, in marshes and coniferous forests.

The name “Cetraria” is derived from the Latin “cetra”, which referred to a small leather shield, because of the shield-shaped reproductive organs. The word “Lichen” is derived from the Greek “leichein”, which means licking, sanding or poaching and indicating the creeping way of growing.

Icelandic moss was not known as a cure in ancient times. The first known description can be found under the name Muscus islandicus catharticus in a list of medicines – the Copenhagen taxe – from 1672. A short time later, healers used Icelandic moss throughout Europe for various diseases.