Macro Monday: Fruticose Lichen

Fruticose lichen covered with ice after freezing rain.

Fruticose lichens are the most three-dimensional lichen type.  They're usually round in cross section, and most are branched, looking like small shrubs.  The lichens in the lower right are foliose.  They are leaf-like and look something like foliage.  Neither are harmed by ice nor freezing temperature, though dry conditions will cause them to go dormant.

Fruticose lichen with apothecia (fruiting bodies).

The same type of lichen a few inches up the branch are "blooming", producing fruiting bodies called apothecia.  All lichens are an alga and fungus living in a symbiotic relationship.  Most (but not all) of the fungi involved in producing lichens are Ascomycetes, which reproduce by growing a cup-like fruiting body called an apothecium.  The apothecium's spores will only reproduce a fungus.  To form a lichen it must combine with the appropriate algae.



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Macro Monday: Fruticose Lichen

Golden-eye lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus)

Cilia surrounding the apothecia on Golden-eye Lichen

Lichens are not a single organisms.  They consist of an alga and a fungus living together in a symbiotic association.  The fungus provides the structure (thallus).  Because it can conduct photosynthesis, the alga contributes the nutrients that support both organisms.  Reproductive methods among lichens are varied.  In one method used by the Golden-eyed lichen, the fungal component engages in reproduction independent of its alga partner.  It forms cup-like apothecia in which spores form and and from which spores are distributed.  These spores will not produce another lichen because they only contain the genetic information of the fungus.  For a lichen to result, they must recombine with the alga.

This appears to be another Teloschistes chrysophthalmus.

Identifying lichens visually is usually difficult to impossible.  Many can only be positively identified by chemical analysis.  However, the apothecia on the Golden-eye Lichen seem to be distinctive.  They are the feature giving this lichen its common name, a distinction most other lichens lack.   (If anyone believes my ID is wrong, I'd appreciate a correction.)  These lichens were on the bark of a persimmon tree.


Sources and more photos:
Oklahoma State University
Irish Lichens

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Golden-eye lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus)

Lichen Mandella

Nature's creations never cease to amaze me.

Lichen Mandella

All Is Right

All is right in the world.

Overnight we received a new cold front

It's cold, but sunny.

Birds are in the trees.





Lichens are on the rocks.




Deer are in the garden.

All Is Right

Lichens On Parade

Here's a little of what the lichen page on Backyard Nature has to say:

Structurally, 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.

In this amazing association the fungus benefits from the algae because fungi, having no chlorophyll, can't photosynthesize their own food. A lichen's fungal part is thus "fed" by its photosynthesizing algal part. The algae benefit from the association because the fungus is better able to find, soak up, and retain water and nutrients than the algae. Also, the fungus gives the resulting lichen shape, and provides the reproductive structures. This kind of relationship between two or more organisms, where both organisms benefit, is known as mutualism.

After doing a little research, I concluded that identifying lichens is a lot like identifying mosses: I'd have a lot more success at learning to flap my arms and fly than at pinning down a lichen ID. Therefore, I shall be content just displaying photos of the lichens I've found recently. If you want to learn more, visit Backyard Nature or Earthlife. By studying those pages (and all the additional links they provide) you can become a lichen expert, while I just wander around taking photos and enjoying nature.

Have fun!

Lichens On Parade

Daliesque Lichen

Is surrealism on the rocks?

This lichen reminds me of one of Salvador Dali's clocks melting over the edge of a table.

Daliesque Lichen