Mosses, lichens, fungi... oh my!
What the heck is going on here? This squat little stump looks like it’s been taken over by alien life forms. Squishy, crusty and hairy, they cling onto the remains of the tree, coexisting in a cooperative, mutually beneficial agreement.
Mosses–let’s call them nature’s carpet–are tiny individual plants that huddle closely together to absorb and share water and nutrients. Lichens, a beautifully symbiotic coupling of fungus and a photosynthetic partner such as algae, are the wallpaper.
"Nature doth thus kindly heal every wound. By the mediation of a thousand little mosses and fungi, the most unsightly objects become radiant of beauty."
H. D. Thoreau
Describing them with wonderfully technical mouthfuls of terms such as squamulose, crustose, foliose and fruticose, scientists characterize lichens as fungal greenhouses, algal farmsteads, ecosystems, organisms, and emergent property.
Fungi is particularly vulnerable to air pollution so is a bioindicator of increasing levels of pollution. When mosses and lichens disappear, it’s an early warning of harmful conditions.
So, from the carpet of mosses at the top of its head to the powdery, wavy-edged lichens crawling down its leg, this stump provides a picture of a healthy, diverse ecosystem.
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