{"id":11262,"date":"2020-02-05T10:10:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T16:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=11262"},"modified":"2020-02-12T09:20:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T15:20:27","slug":"youll-be-lichen-this-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/youll-be-lichen-this-article\/","title":{"rendered":"You’ll Be Lichen This Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n

The BugLady is recovering (slowly) from some computer issues, her convalescence complicated by the fact that she doesn\u2019t speak the language. This article is modified from one she wrote for the Winter, 2014 issue of The BogHaunter<\/em>, newsletter of the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog.<\/p>\n

Crusty green or gray growths that look like they\u2019ve been pounded or sprayed onto rocks and tree trunks. Small, shrubby clumps attached to tree branches. Tiny gray-green chalices or gnarled, red-topped fingers. Brilliant orange cups and tongues appropriately named \u201csunburst.\u201d What are<\/em> those things?<\/p>\n

\"green<\/a><\/p>\n

Lichens.<\/p>\n

Naturalists take great glee in telling their audiences that \u201ca lichen is a fungus and an alga that have taken a liken\u2019 to each other<\/em>.\u201d Lichens are two organisms in one package\u2014composite organisms<\/em>\u2014a fungus and (usually) an alga. If you had been reading about them a few decades ago, they would have been classified as non-flowering members of the Plant kingdom in their own taxonomic division. Today, because a fungus contributes the characteristic shape of most lichens, the majority of lichens are classified in the Fungus kingdom. Only about 20% of fungus species are able to \u201clichenized,\u201d and a lichen fungus without its alga partner is formless.<\/p>\n

\"gray<\/a><\/p>\n

Most lichen fungi are very particular about who they partner with. Green and yellow-green algae, the typical algal partners, used to be classified as plants, too, but today are recognized as members of a large mish-mosh of generally tiny (but some as large as giant kelp), unicellular and multicellular, not-closely-related organisms that photosynthesize. Some lichens contain cyanobacteria, and others may house both.<\/p>\n

\"teal-green<\/a><\/p>\n

There are between 3,500 and 5,000 species of these often-overlooked organisms in North America and around 20,000 worldwide; and they are said to cover 6% of the earth\u2019s surface. Fungi have been living the \u201clichen lifestyle\u201d for a long time\u2014possibly as long as 400 million years. They don\u2019t fossilize readily. Visually, they are cataloged by growth form; the three most common groups are the<\/p>\n