Lichens are things
image transcript:
the lichen knowledge iceberg i have constructed on request.
jhanettesticle replies:
we cant make lichen happen in a lab? have we tried taking the parts that make up a lichen and throwing them together in a petri dish?
bogleech replies:
The deranged fucked up dark sided thing about lichen is that the exact species comprising it don't even necessarily determine the type of lichen. You can have what seems to be the same lichen in two different locations using different symbiotes, or two different looking lichen turn out to have the very same symbiotes. So it's not even that they form when the right component species meet up, because that doesn't always have a predictable result. Something in the environment tells them to build a lichen. Something that makes sense to them but has no meaning to us yet. Whatever it is cannot be imitated by us, in fact if you move a lichen indoors - or move it at all, really - it's all but guaranteed to stop being a lichen or just due, even if you try to recreate the climate you found it in!
Only one truth is certain:
Lichens are things.
end of transcript
reposted from tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/bogleech/756047802259341312
41 replies
For anyone else who was curious about lichens covering "a not insignificant amount" of the earth's surface, a quick google tells me it's about 7% (according to e.g. new york times, scientific american, etc)
Edit: oh and estimating the age of an exposed surface by lichen diameter is called lichenometry. I'm seeing stuff about it being used in geological contexts but it makes sense that it could work for old buildings too
We can't even grow most bacteria in labs. It's a pretty small subset that work with the traditional agar petri dish set up.
Gotta love oligotrophy. Some lichens grow inside rocks... definitely can't replicate that in a lab (although not for lack of trying).
And that doesn't even get to the level of Archaea. Some of which we only know about because of genetic material.
Relevant MinuteEarth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VY_SBwkCjw
i imagine alien hivemind organisms looking at earth and our cities upon it and thinking "what are these growths and why aren't the samples we collect producing them?"
I would like to propose an addition to the Forbidden Knowledge list:
Will we get Orkz one day when some mad scientist decides to cross lichen with Florida man?
I'm sure it's not unusual for Florida men to have lichen growing on them, so we're probably halfway there already.
Whispered:
I've never thought about it. I always just assumed lichen was just a specific type of moss.
Same. The more I learn about fungus and their related kin, the more I realize I don't get them lol.
To be fair, based on mycology memes I’ve seen nobody gets fungi or their kin. (Nobody who knows enough to listen to, at least.)
For anyone interested, I really recommend the book / audio book Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.
I liked the book so much that I later on bought the audio book. It's entertaining, filled with facts, but not overly scientific to a degree where it can't be enjoyed by a layman.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52668915-entangled-life
Thanks! Definitely saving this comment for future reading.
What the fuck is lichen
The short answer: fungus and algae work together and create a multi-organism structure.
The medium answer: [this meme]
The long answer: [years of graduate school]
It's a thing that grows on trees and rocks mostly, but can and does grow on basically anything in the goldilocks conditions. They feel like crispy moss if you touch them.
They thrive in graveyards...
*off screen* Me too!
To those unfamiliar, this is the translation from goth to non-goth. Any non-goths hearing Robert Smith here make this statement would perceive someone closer to:
me tooSubscribe for more fun facts from "Too Sad to Sack Rome: Understanding Goths"
If
makes more sense to me than
Does that make me a goth?
I'm sorry but, I'm not a physician and thus am not qualified to provide medical advice.
Just need to build a lab in a graveyard then. Checkmate lichens!
What if it’s how our souls are released. Man I’m high and that thought still gives me the call of the void lol
I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure that this photo I took a while back has a lot of lichen:
That flakey & coral-looking stuff growing on the branches should be lichen.
Lichen deez nuts
gottem
It’s the opposite of not lichen.
And that’s both a pithy retort, as well as an accurate reflection of the ultimate gist of the infographic lol
A containment protocol for an ancient plague.
link to the iceberg image
Bless you for doing the work of the Lord (Lichen Out to Read Dis)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen
Is a forest with a good mycorrhizal network a huge lichen..?
Technically? Maybe.
the real lichen is the friends we- oh god, oh god no jerry not you too
I fucking hate the fact that this 100 story tall image format has become the default on the internet...
Does "The Last Of Us" count here?
The happening. Man I’m still mad I spent time watching that. And I really don’t value my time lmao
Omg thank you, I've only seen Gaia once but I loved it and I forgot the name!
Huh. https://phys.org/news/2016-03-fossil-oldest-land-dweller.html