View allAll Photos Tagged Lichens
This twig blew off my tree yesterday, the lichen is so fascinating and apparently harmless to the tree, I always thought the opposite?
Common varieties of lichens in North Dakota. Taken near the Missouri River just north of the Briardale subdivision in Burleigh County.
More damp raininess in these parts, and I've been as busy as a busy thing, so have some rather unexciting lichen on a fence post.
Info: Canon 550D, Lensbaby Double Glass + 8mm Macro Converter, 1/125, ISO 100
Just because it's such a fabulous loking lichen, even if it is one of the really common ones!
This is Xanthoria parietina, a yellowy orange coloured leafy (foliose) lichen that is one of the most common species around. The yellow chemical xanthorin is thought to be produced as a defence against UV radiation to which it is exposed in its normal habitat - cement tiled roofs, exposed twigs and branches etc. When it is growing in the shade it does not require such protection and xanthorin production stops and the lichen remains green. In or after rain, this lichen appears more greeny yellow as the algae shows through the more translucent fungus.
Xanthoria parietina has wide distribution, and many common names such as common orange lichen, yellow scale, maritime sunburst lichen and shore lichen. It can be found near the shore on rocks or walls (hence the epithet parietina meaning "on walls"), and also on inland rocks, walls, or tree bark.
The orange lichen in the center is Teloschistes chrysophthalmus. The gray mushroom-like lichen in the center may be a Physcia species. There are at least five other lichen species here that I can't begin to identify.
There are two lichen species on this section of a fallen branch along the Dowagiac River. At the bottom is Physcia millegrana. I am still working on the identification of the upper specimen. These images show both the asexual reproductive structures, i.e., the soridia (crusty material) on the thalli of the lichen at the top and sexual, i.e., the apothecia (dark disks on the lichen at the bottom.) A close look at the large thalus margin in the upper right shows the hair-like rhizoids which hold the lichen to the substrate (look in the shadows in the right 1/3 and top 1/3 of the image.)
An interesting ecological point is that these specimen's days are likely numbered. This spring, I have found many lichens on branches which fell during a late fall storm. I have not found these lichens at ground level on intact tree branches. Unfortunately these branches will likely become firewood as summer in this park moves forward.
Photographed using a Nikkor 135mm f/4 bellows lens on a Nikon PB-4 bellows with a Sony A7R. Focus stacked from 40 images using Zerene.
Un lichen commun et très visible. Si mon ID est erronée (notamment du fait de la ressemblance avec Xanthoria calcicola) j'abandonne la lichénologie.
Green Lichen on tree bark.
A sign of a tree not in the best of health. In this case the tree is growing slowly and struggling to survive in poor, waterlogged soil.
... on an old castle wall
Fundstücke auf alten Burgmauern ... hier Burgruine Losenstein in Oberösterreich
(probably Acarospora sp)
Los Navalucillos, Montes de Toledo
Field of View / Campo de Vision: 4 x 2,5 cm
Since moving here, I have always been attracted and fascinated by the scope and variety of these remarkable entities. The plant-like appearance of lichens hides their true identity. A lichen is not a single organism, but the result of a partnership (mutualistic symbiosis) between a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria. Some lichens are formed of three or more partners. The body of a lichen consists of fungal filaments (hyphae) surrounding cells of green algae and/or blue-green cyanobacteria.
The complexity of lichen partnerships has caused lichens to be described as "small ecosystems". They are classified as members of the Fungus Kingdom by systematists because the fungus partner is always the major partner. After a lichen symbiosis is established, the fungus has the greatest influence on the final form of the lichen body’s shape, and whether it is tough or flexible. The algal and bacterial partner(s) each have their own scientific names, but the lichen symbiosis is known only by the name of its fungus.
The great majority of the 13,500-18,000 species of lichenized fungi grow very slowly, often less than a millimeter per year, and some lichens are thought to be among the oldest living things on Earth. Lichens are a major component of biological diversity. They are, however, extremely vulnerable to habitat alteration, so it comes as no surprise that the habitats with the highest lichen species diversity are the remnants of ancient forests and other undisturbed ecosystems. The association between high diversity of lichens and pristine habitats is so clear that scientists use lichens as indicators of ecosystem continuity.
Most lichens are extremely vulnerable to air pollution. When lichens disappear, they give early warning of harmful conditions. Scientists using lichens to monitor air quality often compare current lichen inventories with past records. For example, nearly 80% of the original lichen species were found to be missing from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, an area I know quite well, undoubtedly due to the extensive pollution once symptomatic of the entire south shore of Lake Michigan.
Happily, lichens abound on every tree in my vicinity in many appealing varieties, yet another indication of the quality of the environment in which I'm fortunate to reside, and adding another area of study previously unexplored...
"Lichen The Outdoors" - It was spring and I was helping David Cobb Photography hunt for the elusive mountain lady slipper flower. There was a fork in the road, unfortunately, no plate of pasta to eat it with so I let my stomach growl. Okay, I joke, and I wasn't truly hungry... yet. David went one way and I went the other. A half an hour later we meet back up. "Any luck," David asks me. Yes! I say with enthusiasm. I found a very interesting rock with earth-toned lichen. David was hoping my initial excitement was for this rare flower yet alas it was not. He also knows I can never pass up a good rock.
Had I not been keeping my eyes peeled on the ground for the flower I would have walked right past the rock. It was well camouflaged with the surrounding landscape.
I found these colorful lichens on the backside an old steel bridge on a walking path near the lower spillway at Big Creek State Park (Polk City, Iowa).
Developed with Darktable 3.6.0.
Lichen on a fallen branch with a sprinkling of ice crystals- focus stacked using zerene. See www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/16392731212/ for a 3-D version
Biodiversity in a seemingly inhospitable environment. Temperatures and aridity are extreme (from a human viewpoint), yet this is the norm for the inhabitants on this sandstone in Arches National Park. At least 5 different species of lichens are present, with wonderful names like Caloplaca trachyphylla (the most abundant species) and Acarospora socialis (thanks to Erin Tripp for the identifications). How do they feed themselves? Lichens are a symbiosis between a photosynthetic organism (usually an algae or a cyanobacteria) and a fungus. The photosynthetic organism is responsible for obtaining food, and the fungus provides protection from harsh light and dessication. In some cases lichens can be parasitic, as seen here with the greenish lichen on the orange lichen.
Lichens are used to date events, since they leave a record of their growth. The rings are derived from one lichen growing for hundreds or thousands of years. Geomorphologists have used lichens to date glacial events, and archeologists use them to date artifacts.