A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria (or both) living among filaments of a fungus in a symbiotic relationship. The combined life form has properties that are very different from the properties of its component organisms. Lichens come in many colors, sizes, and forms. The properties are sometimes plant-like, but lichens are not plants. Lichens may have tiny, leafless branches (fruticose), flat leaf-like structures (foliose), flakes that lie on the surface like peeling paint (crustose), or other growth forms.
“There is a low mist in the woods, It is a good day to study lichens.” – Henry David Thoreau
I have a beautiful old oak tree in my backyard covered in lichen from top to bottom. Lichen is a beautiful organism that is the result of a partnership between a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria and for my enjoyment, a tree. Why it happens I have no clue. That it happens makes me very happy.
You see, I love the beauty, the simplicity and the collaboration of lichen. It gracefully paints the trunks of trees and rocks over boundless landscapes in various shapes, sizes, colors, textures and designs. If you have taken any time exploring the quiet and slow movements that lichen aspires to produce you to would marvel at this wonderful cooperative life form.
Human beings could learn many lessons about living from lichen. Colors exist together in harmony, different shapes and kinds live in peace with each other. They treat their host and home gently, respectfully and with reverence. Lichen understands the concept of balance, of symmetry.
We humans fancy ourselves complicated and complex creatures. We seem to have all answers, all the solutions while we continue to resolve conflicts with anger, hate and death. We disrespect our host, our planet. We treat it as if there is no end to the resources we suck out of its marrow. Yes, we could learn a lot from this wonderful organism if we simply accepted and respected the lessons of lichen.
“One could speculate that lichens would be among the last inhabitants to succumb on a dying earth at some distant point in the future.” – Steven L. Stephenson,