I'm Lichen The Orange Rocks: Tuesday Color Challenge

Did you know that a lichen is a symbiosis between different organisms - a fungus and an algae? It's not a single thing at all. It's largely made of fungal hyphae - the outer skin and the inner structure - and throughout that are singular cells of algue. Mind. Blown.

Every since I listened to Melvin Sheldrake's 'Entangled Life' on Audible whilst on holiday in Tasmania, I've seen lichen differently. A book primarily about fungi that will turn you into a mycophile yourself, his chapter on lichen was perhaps the most fascinating, although I'd argue the entire book is fascinating (I've since ordered a hard copy).

Lichen was primarily the organism that gave rise to the scientific concept of symbiosis in the 1870's. They're the only chemical that can breakdown rock - Sheldrake talks about the need to clean Mt Rushmore as the lichen was eating away at the president's faces - releasing their nutrients for other living beings in the ecosystem. He wrote that it acts “go-betweens that inhabit the boundary dividing life and nonlife” . It was fascinating to here how symbiosis was initially rejected as a concept because it contradicted Darwinian theory that competition was the force behind evoltion. Co-operation, scientists found, was more of a rule than competition. The symbiosis between lichen, fungi, trees and all other beings totally transforms how we understand life.

“The authors of a seminal paper on the symbiotic view of life take a clear stance on this point. “There have never been individuals,” they declare. “We are all lichens.”
― Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

It's hard not to think of this looking at the orange lichen on the rocks at Bay of Fires in Tasmania, from the family Hymeneliaceae.

The colour is just mesmering, and makes the place very photogenic. But it's not the images I think about, but the wonder of lichen.

Some other fun facts about lichen that blew my mind is that they're an indicator of air quality (I breathed better in Tassie than anywhere on the mainland) and some are the oldest organisms on the plant. Some could survive the pressure of coming through space through our atmosphere. They can withstand the most extreme temperatures on earth and still survive.

The more I learnt about lichen, the more I think they're just as groovy as the fruiting bodies of mycellium we all love.

What do you know about lichen?