Tag: lichen

botanyshitposts:

writingbiologi:

alithographica:

botanyshitposts:

i arrive at the gay bar in full butch getup and i look like super hot like trust me and i start buying chocolate milk for the femmes at the bar…..between my striking good looks and my generosity concerning tasteful dairy products i have impressed them greatly and after an hour of chatting I make my move. i reach into my pocket and remove a large, gorgeous lichen affixed to a piece of bark from its protective herbarium packet that I have concealed in my pants pocket. “it’s a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an algae,” i begin,

You say shitpost but I swear to god I would pick up the U-haul on our way home from the bar don’t try me

A new discovery a few years ago revealed there is also basidiomycete yeasts involved in the lichen symbiosis, a third player going completely undetected for 150 years.

this is true!!!! we still dont know a whole lot about how it interacts, though. it fucks me up because you would think that the exact correct combination of microscopic algae and fungus coming together to germinate into a weird psuedo-organism would be nearly impossible, but yet it happens all the time everywhere on earth….and now there has to be a yeast, too?? so you gotta have the correct exact species of microscopic algae, fungus, and yeast coming together on the correct substrate by no one’s control but the wind and rain or else whoops, no lichen???? how does that happen??

calosoma-amitch:

What’s this? Just a rock?

Actually, a clever lichen-mimic. 

Camouflage is an important and popular defense in the insect world, and this is especially true for moths. As many moths are nocturnal and inactive during the day, it is important that they can remain hidden in broad daylight, even when hiding in plain sight. On this lichen-covered rock sits a prime example, the mottled prominent (Macrurocampa marthesia)  

Mottled prominent (Macrurocampa marthesia), Fishers Island NY. July 2018. 

As caterpillars, they hide by resting against the vein of leaves that they feed on, trying to mimic the part of the leaf they had just eaten. If this tactic does not work, the caterpillars are capable of spraying a burst of formic acid from a gland just above their prothorax (i.e., the caterpillar’s “neck”). Mottled prominents feed on beech, oak, and maple.   

Up to two generations a year, with caterpillars common by late spring onward. Caterpillars overwinter as pupae.  

Is that unusual? That’s how most of the branches here look like (Washington)

botanyshitposts:

it is for me!! i’m in iowa, so all our lichens are made to withstand the winters and stuff, which means you usually get lower diversity, smaller size, and more crustose (the weird patches of brown/green/blue discoloration you might see on branches or concrete, but if you look closer you’ll see that it’s an organism!!) or foliose (kind of fluffy, but not having a huge wild ass time; usually on trees) lichens. we have NO fruticose lichens here (those are the full on partying lichens that are like, dangling and stuff). usually the pallets are more brown/grey/blue/green, with one or two orange ones, and you’ll notice that the lichens leave space between each other where i come from; there’s just less of them unless you get into a forested area where they’re less disturbed. 

here’s a visual guide to the main three lichen types, since its kinda hard to describe: 

so we have a lot of the first two, but almost NONE of the last one. 

lichens are crazy because once you start learning about them, you will see them EVERYWHERE. its impossible to avoid them, the crustose species especially.