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shadylane
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Posts: 456
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:42 am
Location: North Central Illinois

There's something to Lichen

I had heard and began to think that lichen was a problem to trees. Well perhaps they are but I had found some interesting readings about lichen... they are peculiar.

Being lichen, it would need to be two types of organisms joined together as one. The green or blue/green "alga", that photosynthesizes to produce food(sugars) from sunlight and a "fungus hyphae", which is an underground filament that draws minerals from decaying organic matter. Together create lichen.

Many of the algae and fungi that form lichens can also live independently, but when they do so they take on a very different form.

There are three main groups of lichen: Fruticose, Foiose, and Crustoes, which are recognized by the way they grow, or habit.

The Fruticose lichens look a little like shrubs and are at times forked and antler like. They dominate the arctic tundra because they contain chemicals that act like a anti-freeze and can survive the extreme cold. Which have become a major food source for reindeer.

Foliose lichens are often found on wet stones, or wood. We may have seen these on many of our garden orderments. Foliose lichens are slightly raised and leafy at the edges, and have a distinctive upward facing cups.

Crustose lichens are perhaps what we generally think of as lichen. They grow flush on gravestones, walls, and roof tiles where they create circular or fan shaped patterns in a large range of colors either creamy blue, gray, lemon yellow or ocher to deep red.

This may not give you reason to Lichen or dis-Lichen but a algae/fungi spore that can live for hundreds of years have some room for thought. There have been reports of specimens in museum collections that, when accidentally dampened, have started growing after 30 years of dormancy. And some importance of Lichen, scientists are using lichens's sensitivity to pollution to monitor environmental changes.

While going for walks I have a different outlook on nature, Hope you do too.

GD001
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Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:22 pm
Location: Middle East, Lebanon

Very intriguing :)
I always find them fascinating! Especially cause they're rare to find in populated areas here in Lebanon.



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