Lichens

ALL on ONE Wall

| Flower Roberts

I needed to go to a place that grounds me. These are shaky times and I needed some mental mooring. I went to where I always go when I need peace.

Tuesday morning, I was shaken by the unthinkable. War.

Evergreen Island


I went to Evergreen Island to clear my head. By some strange miracle, I was the only person there. This has never happened before. I guess folks were at the polls or watching the war unfold.

Stone wall full of life

I do not take my safe life for granted. I am disturbed by the unrest everywhere. Humans baffle me. Nature makes more sense. I brought my camera with me especially to photograph this stone wall.

Fern, lichen, algae and moss coexisting

I have studied this wall for years. It brings me peace to see a mix of species living together in harmony.

Foliose and fruticose lichens among moss

There is moss, ferns and lichen living on these old stones. There are forms of algae, fungi and bacteria that cannot be seen. I also see signs of animals living inside the wall.

A hole in the wall home

These living things coexist and share nutrients, space and moisture.

The stone wall plant and fungi condo

This symbiosis between species has taken thousands of years of adjustments to attain balance.

A heart in the wall

I wonder how long it will take humans to learn to live together?

FLOW

Lovin’ a Lichen

| Flower Roberts

I have always had a fondness for fungi. Lichens are a mix of fungi and algae that  grow on rocks and trees.

My favorite forms of these little hybrid beings are the fruticose kind. These are shrubby and sometimes pendulent.

Fruticose lichen


This beauty was on a fallen stick beside a trail I hiked this afternoon.

Flat foliose form on the right of fruticose.

I love how its growth cascades off the former branch it was growing on.

May be Usnea strigosa lichen?  You tell me.

Lovely color and form!
I am lovin’ this little lichen!

FLOW

First Tree of Life Revisited

| Flower Roberts

I returned to my first Tree of Life to check on its changes since 2017. (See link below.)

Tree of Life

Most of the fungi was gone. Instead it was covered with lichens and mosses.

The bark and covering life forms were still soaking wet from a downpour the day before.

Water was actually traveling through the mosses and dripping onto the ground below.

The tree itself looked less alive but it was totally covered with other forms of life.

It was truly beautiful.

FLOW and Ebb

Life on a Limb

| Flower Roberts

Zeta threw down a lot of limbs last week.

It is always interesting to look at what has taken up residence on the dead wood of a tree.

These life forms get heavy with rain, then the wind stresses the limb to the point that gravity wins.

Here is a limb full of life.

It is covered with fungi and lichen.

The fungi here is called a jelly.

The lichens are grouped by their form.

They can be crustose, foliose of fruticose depending on whether they appear crusty, leafy of fruity.

If you would like to learn more, use the link below.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/lichens/gallery/index.shtml

Flow

Why Boughs Break

| Flower Roberts

It seems like this answer would be simple, but it is not.

It is not death that brings them down, its all the new life they create as they die.

While they are old and weakened other things move in.

Insects bore holes through the bark.

Birds peck at the holes to get the insects.

Water gets into the bark and fungi follows.

Now water hides in all those nooks and crannies.

Lichens like this environment so they start settle in and grow.

Moss spores get blown on the breeze and light on this new little habitat.

More rain, more spores, more insects, more holes.

One day there is a wind or a heavy rain.

There is not enough old dead fiber left in the bough to support all that new life,

so it breaks.

Gravity brings the bough back to earth with all the new life on board.

Death is part of a continuum.

Not the end.

Flow

Liken’ a Lichen

| Flower Roberts

I love plants and fungi.

So how could I not like a lichen? It is both plant(algae) and fungi.

This is called symbiosis.

I hate to admit that I picked this up, stuck it in the pocket of my coat and forgot about it.

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Later, I reached in and found this dried up wad.

Amazingly, it plumped back up when I put a few drops of water on it.

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I chopped it into pieces to put under the microscope.

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Cross-section

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Fruiting body. Looks like a tiny cup.

 

Do not worry about its survival. All the pieces are happily growing in one of the terrariums.

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