Lichen

Thanks Alex. I just joined.

btw, we have now a mission for "lichen".( http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8624... ) If you want, feel free to join. (everyone else with lichen, too !! )

Thanks. I'll let you know what I find in my book.

yep,sounds right, at wikipedia can you get nice ( but not always complet ) information about the whole complex. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen ). (i have to make me familiar with that the next time!?! )good luck

Good question, AlexKonig. I have never thought of that, but my assumption would be they are two different lichens just co-existing on the same surface. I am not good at lichens too, but I think if they die, they would just start to dry out and wear off in the middle of the “colony”. As we can see one of the orange lichens has a hole in the middle, while the grey ones seem quite healthy. I’ll try to check this in my botany book. I have read that lichens are composed of a fungus or mold and an alga, which have symbiotic relationships. The fungus provides nutrients and minerals, since it has hyphal structure, which gives it the ability to penetrate through walls or stones or tree trunks; and the alga produces organic carbon sugars through photosynthesis, since it has chlorophyll.

nice ! do you think, the grey and yellow are 2 species or is the one the older/dried/dead form of the other. First thought was : common wall lichen, but i'm not that good in lichen. And, as far as i know, are lichen still subclass of fungi. Even if i heard otherwise the last time, i haven't found hard evidence on the net