Forked tube lichen

Description:

Technically a foliose lichen. The cuplike things are reproductive structures called apothecia. Since a lichen is a combination of a fungus and an alga species growing together, the apothecium's similarity to some mushrooms isn't coincidental; the lichen's fungal part produces the apothecium. So, fungal spores are produced by microscopic, baglike affairs (asci) covering the apothecium's inner concave surface. The spores germinate where they find a perfect environment, send out a wandering fungal strand that eventually finds cells of the right alga species, and starts growing around them. As both fungal and algal cells multiply and enmesh, the lichen takes form. The lichen also produces asexually with conidia or conidiospores, which can be thought of as more or less like dust particles coming off the fungus, thus producing new lichens with the same genetic makeup as the parent.

Habitat:

Spotted in a pine and fir dominate forest near Cle elum, Wa.