lichens

Description:

"Lichens are unusual creatures. A lichen is not a single organism the way most other living things are, but rather it is a combination of two organisms which live together intimately. Most of the lichen is composed of fungal filaments, but living among the filaments are algal cells, usually from a green alga or a cyanobacterium." http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fungi/liche...

Habitat:

Lichens growing on a wooden fence (planks of Intsia bijuga) in a large yard & garden in the equatorial tropics of northern New Guinea. The fence abuts a disturbed patch of remnant forest. The closest trees to this spotting are Pometia pinnata, Cocos nucifera, Areca catechu. The soil is very sandy.