Reindeer & Iceland Moss Wall Art

Two lichens do most of the work in this collection, and they are not the same thing despite both being sold under the word “moss” almost everywhere.

Reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina) is the branching, springy one — the material most people picture when they imagine a green wall. Iceland lichen (Cetraria islandica) grows in flatter, more leathery strips with curled edges. Neither is botanically a moss. Both are lichens, which are part fungus and part alga, and that composite structure is exactly why they survive preservation so well and keep their softness for years.

Why Reindeer Moss Wall Art Is Different

These two materials handle differently from cushion or sheet species, and pieces built from them look different enough to be worth grouping together.

Reindeer lichen has volume without weight. Its branching structure traps air, so a panel filled with it has depth you can see from an angle but almost no mass — which is why large pieces in this material hang on a single fixing where a sheet-filled panel of the same size would need more. It also takes dye evenly, which is why the widest colour range in our workshop is in this material rather than in the true mosses.

Iceland lichen behaves like a flatter, more graphic material. It lies closer to the backing, has a papery quality up close, and holds a hard edge better. Where reindeer lichen gives you a cloud, Iceland lichen gives you a surface.

Reindeer Moss and Iceland Moss Compared

Most of our reindeer moss wall art uses both. A panel filled with reindeer lichen and edged with Iceland lichen has a soft centre and a controlled outline, which is harder to achieve with a single material.

The Pieces in This Collection

• Framed panels — rectangular and square, in oak and ash, the most straightforward format.
• Hexagons — modular pieces that combine into larger arrangements. Also in hexagon moss wall art.
• Circles — where the even texture of reindeer lichen suits a symmetrical shape.
• Illuminated pieces — the branching structure diffuses LED light unusually well, which is why so many lit panels use this material.
• Mixed compositions — lichen with preserved ferns, roses, bark and tree fungus.

The Reindeer Moss Colour Range

Natural reindeer moss is a pale grey-green. Almost everything you see in a shop has been dyed during preservation, which is standard practice and not a shortcut — the dye goes in with the glycerin, so the colour sits inside the material rather than on top of it.

The practical consequence is that dyed shades and natural shades age differently. Natural tones barely shift over a decade indoors. Strong dyed colours — deep forest greens, and anything in the yellow or red range — lose intensity faster under bright light. If a piece is going somewhere sunny, natural or muted shades will look better in five years than a vivid one will.

Where Reindeer Moss Wall Art Works Best

The springy, deep-textured surface photographs well under almost any lighting, which is why this material dominates in commercial interiors. Reception walls, restaurant backdrops, salon and clinic waiting areas — spaces where a surface is looked at repeatedly by people with nothing else to do.

In homes the reasoning is usually different. People choose it because they want something they can touch. Panels in this material end up in hallways and beside sofas rather than high on a stairwell wall, because the whole appeal is the texture at close range, and at three metres up you lose it.

• Above a sofa or bed — where the depth registers from a seated position.
• Hallways and entryways — the first surface a visitor passes close to.
• Home offices — soft texture behind you on video calls, and no upkeep to remember.
• Reception and waiting areas — the commercial standard, and the reason we hold the widest colour range in this material.
• Meeting rooms — including windowless ones, where a living plant is not an option at all.

Why Lichen Lasts So Long

Reindeer moss survives conditions that kill most plants. They grow on bare rock in the Arctic, dry out completely, and rehydrate years later. That resilience is structural, and it carries over into preservation.

The process replaces the internal moisture with a plant-based glycerin solution. Because lichen has no vascular system to collapse and no leaves to shed, it holds its shape indefinitely once treated. Indoors, a panel keeps its appearance for 7 to 10 years, and the ones that fall short of that are almost always in direct sun.

Buying for a Commercial Fit-Out

This material is the one specifiers come back to for large projects, and the reasons are practical rather than aesthetic.

It covers area efficiently, since the branching structure fills space with very little weight. It comes in the widest colour range we hold, so a brand palette can usually be matched approximately without custom dyeing. And it is consistent enough between batches that a phased installation across several floors still looks like one scheme.

Order the full quantity together where possible. Tone varies slightly batch to batch, which nobody notices on a single panel and everybody notices on a corridor wall.

Reindeer Moss Care

Nothing routine. No water — and it matters more here than elsewhere, because the branching structure holds water against itself and dries slowly, so a mist that would evaporate off a flat panel sits in this material and washes out glycerin.

Keep pieces out of direct sunlight and away from constant damp. For dust, use a cool hairdryer on the lowest setting, held well back: reindeer lichen is springy but individual branches snap if you push a cloth into them.

Related Collections

For domed, sculptural texture instead of branching, see bun moss wall art. The full range of framed pieces by shape is in moss wall art, and the raw material by the box is under preserved moss.