Some of the nice things about lichen is that you can enjoy them year-round; they grow just about everywhere; they come in a beautiful variety of colors, shapes and textures; and best of all, they don't move in the wind! My poor husband will now have put up with me taking photos of another kind of organism! ;) These lichens were photographed after a snowfall in the Smokies on Feb. 22, 2009. Lichens are incredibly resilient organisms, they can withstand cold, heat, and drought. Their "Achilles' heel" is poor air quality since they absorb water and nutrients from the air. Park rangers and researchers are studying the health of lichens in the higher elevations of the Smokies to help monitor air quality. Lichens grow at an incredibly slow pace, some from 0.1mm to 0.5mm / year! Large lichens can be very old; all the more reason to not damage them!
I liked the patterns of this lichen and how it changes color as it grows.
After I got back from the Lichen workshop at Tremont, I was anxious to see what our trees had to offer in meiofauna. We had some of our Silver Maple trees trimmed (not topped!) recently, so there was a huge supply of lichens easily available. I soaked them in a jar of water overnight and looked at them the next day. I was surprised to find a Desmid (single-celled alga) in my collection water. Meiofauna are microscopic animals, protozoa, and algae that live in the sediment layer between the lichen and the tree bark. Unfortunately, I didn't find any Water Bears (Tardigrades) in my sample.
