Monday, January 25, 2010

Lichen

Lichen on a rock, yesterday, in Tennessee Valley. I love lichen, and there's a lot to love! Here's what I found on the web ~
 

lichen structure showing fungus hyphae around algal cellsStructurally, lichens are among the most bizarre of all forms of life. That's because every lichen species is actually composed of two, possibly even three,  distinct species of  organisms. One species is a kind of fungus. Usually the other  species is an alga, but sometimes it can be a photosynthesizing bacterium known as a cyanobacterium. Sometimes all three organisms are found in one lichen.

The drawing above gives an idea of what fungal hyphae wrapping around alga cells might look like at the microscopic level. Since all three kinds of organism are profoundly different from one another, what lichens do is almost like merging a shrub with a dog to produce something that looks and lives unlike either shrub or dog!

Hmmm? I hope you understood all that!

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