Green Lichen on Tree Bark Cushion

Art by Mother Nature, photograph MS Chaume. The perfection of art is in nature. This is a photo image of green lichen on the bark of a tree, taken on a pleasant rainy day. Lichen is a truly amazing organism. It can grow almost anywhere and is a fine example of natural symbiotic beauty. Although lichens resemble mosses, they’re not related. Moss is a plant which extracts nutrients from soil and other substrates. Lichen is actually a relationship between algae and a fungus, two separate entities which exist in symbiotic harmony to become a third unique entity, a lichen, more than the sum of its parts. There are many different types of lichen, depending on the algae and fungus that comprise it. This green species is a leafy foliose lichen. Lichens can range in colour fom spectacular to unobtrusive dull grey. Those growing in arid environments may be more yellow or orange, as in the “painted” rocks of deserts. This foliose lichen may look more brown or grey when dry, but is especially green today because it’s raining off and on. The water makes its skin (cortex) translucent, showing the green photobiont layer beneath. The lichen is not harmful to the tree in any way. It’s self-supporting in that it creates its own nourishment through photosynthesis, and uses its host mainly as a place to live. Lichen is one of the oldest-lived organisms in the world and can inhabit almost any area from rain forests to deserts, tropics to arctic regions. It can even grow inside solid rock, or free floating in air. This is just one of the many commonly overlooked but absolutely amazing organisms that inhabit our natural environment. Original photo MS Chaume, taken in Jacques Cartier Park, city of Gatineau (Hull), right across the river from Ottawa, Canada.