I assure you that Frilled Lichen drops all the damn time as long as you’re not trying to farm it on a level 30, and that level 25 is still a “safe” level. Ghost wolf powers activate.
I’m intentionally being ambivalent about whether or not any of this behavior is a bug and simply trying to describe it as it is. It’s entirely possible that the intended way for most of these materials to be “gathered” is by giving that vendor in the riverlands 5 gold a pop. I have no idea, I just wanted to spread understanding about how it’s working right now.
I leveled one of my 25’s to 26 and then did multiple laps around southern barrens picking flowers, probably 150 or so nodes yielded zero lichen, I’m sufficiently satisfied for myself that level 25 is the cutoff for gathering this item, if others want to gather more data points knock yourself out.
TLDR of the entire thread gathering frilled lichen and pristine leather is actually super easy: just don’t be level 30 (or 26, 27, 28, 29). Being a shaman or hunter probably also helps.