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 Twiztidsage
Fungal Databaser
 
Registered: 12/05/08
Posts: 8,088
Loc: Seattle 
Last seen: 1 month, 15 days
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 Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens.....
#11992039 - 02/08/10 09:08 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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February 6th, 2010 - Redding.com
Lichens are overlooked and misunderstood. When they do get noticed, they are often mistaken for a pretty moss or a nasty parasite.
Lichens are neither. They are one of nature's weirder offerings: fungi and algae living in happy partnerships. They come in gray, brown, orange, purple, yellow, chartreuse or other hues, and can look leafy, lacy, crusty or blobby.
"I think they are wonderful," said botanist Susan Libonati, a horticulture teacher at Shasta College in Redding who has a Ph.D in mycology. "They get flexible when wet. They are crispy when dry."
"I kind of like everything about them," said Tom Carlberg of Arcata, editor of the California Lichen Society bulletin and a botanist who works for the Six Rivers National Forest.
What's intriguing, he said, is that lichens are made up of separate organisms that actually have very little in common.
"That's pretty astounding," Carlberg said.
Lichens form when a fungus gets together with either a green alga or a blue-green alga (cyanobacterium) - or sometimes both. The alga produces food through photosynthesis. By wrapping itself around the alga, the fungus is able to tap into the sugars it needs. The alga benefits too. The fungus provides protection and moisture, allowing it to survive in places it wouldn't make it on its own.
"It is symbiosis," Carlberg said. "The reason for the partnership is that the fungus can't feed itself like plants can. It doesn't do photosynthesis ... Some people say the fungus discovered agriculture. I like to think an alga let someone build him a house."
Cooperation and sharing go a long way in the natural world. "Neither could do that well on their own," Libonati said.
Lichens don't have roots. They get nutrients and moisture from the air. Lichens take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Some types also can fix nitrogen, taking nitrogen from the atmosphere and turning it into a useful form. Nutrients lichens capture slough off at times and return to the earth when the lichens die.
"It does eventually get into the soil," Libonati said.
Lichens bring the first organic material to harsh, rocky environments, she noted.
"Lichens are really important as pioneers," she said. "They provide organic material that is part of the initial process of soil formation."
Lichens also provide cover for insects and are used as forage by insects and other creatures, including deer, Carlberg said.
"They are part of the living system," he said.
Lichens are found all over the world. They grow on rocks, trees, walls, gravestones and bare dirt. Different types are adapted to specific conditions. Some live in places that are cold and moist. Others tough it out in hot, dry climates by shriveling and going into a crusty dormancy in summer.
Libonati said some lichens are mistaken as mosses. "They look mossy, but if you get close to them with a magnifying glass, you can see the difference."
A common misconception is that lichen hurts trees it grows on.
"There's not metabolic action between the tree and the lichen. It's just a place for the lichen to grow," Carlberg said.
"People think they have to get rid of them," Libonati said of lichens on trees. But there's no need to do that.
"If a tree has lichens on it, it means your air is good," she said.
Lichens are touchy about poor air quality. They are like little sponges that take nutrients and moisture from the air. They soak up air pollutants too. And some lichens are very sensitive to those pollutants. Disappearing lichens signal environmental changes. Lichens are used as indicator organisms in studies on air pollution and habitat health.
Lichens in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys are in decline because of air pollution, Carlberg said. Only limited numbers of pollution- tolerant lichen grow right in Redding, he said, but if you get into the foothills and beyond, there are many types of lichen.
"Wild country is always better for lichens than cities," Libonati said. "There are lots of them here if people just start looking around."
A good place to find them is Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. A few years ago a group affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley surveyed parts of Whiskeytown and found lots of different types of lichen, according to Whiskeytown ecologist Jennifer Gibson. The lichens don't get noticed by most visitors the way that features like waterfalls do, she said.
"You really have to get an eye for them," she said. "They can be really beautiful. They can form some gorgeous patterns."
Ken DeCamp, a Shasta Lake nature photographer, had a display of lichen photos at the Whiskeytown visitors center last summer. Most of the some 40 varieties showcased in the exhibit were photographed within a small area near Crystal Creek.
You have to make an effort to see them, he said. "You have to get right down at eyeball level to discover the beauty of them. They are absolutely fascinating."
Winter is a good season to view lichens because they soak up moisture and get colorful, he said. "This is absolutely the best time of year," DeCamp said.
Jeremiah Hockett, a park ranger at Whiskeytown, said the secret to seeing them is to slow down.
"It changes your perspective to see things you never noticed before," he said. "They are very beautiful and kind of fun to look for."
Reporter Laura Christman can be reached at 225-8222 or lchristman@redding.com.
Photos courtesy of Ken DeCamp
More about lichen
Lichens have been used as dyes, medicines, bandages, rags, perfume and food. Lichen expert Tom Carlberg of Arcata warned that not all lichens are safe to eat. And the edible ones aren't all that appetizing. "Personally, I think they taste wretched," he said.
Shasta College botany teacher Susan Libonati said wolf lichen was once used to make a solution to kill wolves. It is found in the mountains and can cause a rash. "When loggers come in with mystery rashes, they're often caused by lichen on the trees," she said.
Caribou, deer, moose, mountain goats and flying squirrels are among the wild creatures that eat lichens. Birds use lichens for nesting material.
Lichens reproduce in different ways. The fungus portion can send out tiny spores, but those spores must meet up with the right algae for new lichens to form. Or small fragments of a lichen can break off and form new lichens.
Most lichens grow very slowly, often less than a millimeter per year. Lichens are thought to be among the oldest living things on Earth.
Lichens produce hundreds of unique biochemical compounds that they use to control their exposure to light, repel herbivores and kill attacking microbes.
Sources: Tom Carlberg, Susan Libonati and Lichens of North America Web site (www.lichen.com)
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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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 Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: Twiztidsage]
#11992108 - 02/08/10 09:17 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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ToiletDuk
Cat Psychiatrist
Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 73,289
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: Twiztidsage]
#11992119 - 02/08/10 09:19 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Coolness! I've always been fascinated by lichens.
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Twiztidsage
Fungal Databaser
Registered: 12/05/08
Posts: 8,088
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 month, 15 days
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Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: ToiletDuk]
#11992140 - 02/08/10 09:22 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Me too.
It's cool to find a piece that is like 3 inches long and think about how long it had been growing...
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ScavengerType
bradass87
Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 5,700
Loc: The North
Last seen: 22 days, 22 hours
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Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: Twiztidsage]
#11992564 - 02/08/10 10:22 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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interesting I'd been wondering bout this since I saw a snippet bout it on global warming denier's crock of the week yesterday.
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"Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?"
"The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God. Montesquieu said, "There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of God." And I begin to feel that’s true. The shareholder is the excuse for everything."
- Author and former M6/M5 agent John le Carré on Democracy Now.
Conquer's Club
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Dystopia
unit - [s2dope] - v1.0.13
Registered: 04/06/03
Posts: 10,844
Loc: 451°F
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Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: Twiztidsage]
#11993615 - 02/09/10 05:48 AM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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I love this website.
Thanks so much for posting this.
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Even now, if I see in my soul the citron-breasted fair one
Still gold-tinted, her face like our night stars,
Drawing unto her; her body beaten about the flame,
Wounded by the flaring spear of love,
My first of all by reason of her fresh years,
Then is my heart buried alive in snow.
The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
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Twiztidsage
Fungal Databaser
Registered: 12/05/08
Posts: 8,088
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 month, 15 days
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Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: Dystopia]
#12022541 - 02/13/10 03:11 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Here is a pretty cool looking lichen I found today growing on the bottom of an old rotting fence:
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ScavengerType
bradass87
Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 5,700
Loc: The North
Last seen: 22 days, 22 hours
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Re: Unlikely alliance: Fungi, algae join forces as lichens..... [Re: Twiztidsage]
#12023588 - 02/13/10 06:29 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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cool 
--------------------
"Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?"
"The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God. Montesquieu said, "There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of God." And I begin to feel that’s true. The shareholder is the excuse for everything."
- Author and former M6/M5 agent John le Carré on Democracy Now.
Conquer's Club
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