The gorgeous, mild, deep rains we had this previous week have been a really welcome present within the midst of California’s perpetual drought. Natural world of every kind have benefited, together with some exceptional organisms referred to as lichens.
Lichens don’t belong to the plant or animal kingdom. In reality, they might really signify three kingdoms.
Life on Earth at present falls into considered one of 5 broadly accepted kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, and Monera. The primary two, the animal and plant kingdoms, are pretty simple. The third is Fungi, which incorporates mushrooms, yeasts, and molds. The final two consist principally of very small organisms and are harder to outline. Protista consists of amoebas, algae, dinoflagellates, protozoa, diatoms, and so forth. Moneras are the smallest of all, they include microscopic dwelling beings similar to micro organism and are made up of unicellular organisms with out a outlined nucleus.
Lichens are literally composite organisms consisting of not less than two completely different species, usually a fungus and an alga. There’s an previous mnemonic that may provide help to keep in mind this: “Fred Fungus and Alice Algae took a lichen (like) from one another.” This conveys the concept of two organisms dwelling collectively and in addition helps with the exact pronunciation of the phrase lichen: it’s stated as “like-en” and never “leech-en”.
The connection between fungi and algae is seemingly mutually useful, referred to as symbiotic. In reality, the phrase “symbiosis” was initially coined to explain the connection between fungi and algae dwelling collectively like lichens.
In recent times, some lichenologists found that lichens also can embrace a cyanobacterium, which is why lichens can signify three kingdoms: Fungi for fungi, Protista for algae, and Monera for cyanobacteria.
I do know it might sound complicated, for good cause, as lichenology is a fancy subject and there may be nonetheless a lot to study concerning the world’s varied lichens. However you can even simply take pleasure in lichens as cool, colourful organisms that reside on rocks, bushes, fence posts, and different objects.
Lichens are extraordinarily hardy and may reside nearly anyplace, so long as there may be sufficient moisture on occasion. Some lichens reside on the seashore, battered by waves and uncovered to continuous submersion or saltwater spray, and nonetheless thrive.
Different lichen species reside in Antarctica and may develop as slowly as one-third of an inch in 1,000 years, whereas there are lichens in tropical rainforests that may develop three toes in a single 12 months. Some lichens stayed exterior the Worldwide House Station, within the airless vacuum of area, for a 12 months and a half, and once they went again inside, the lichens started to develop and reproduce once more.
There are about 1,500 species of lichen present in California, and there are a lot of completely different species within the Tehachapi Mountains. A lot of my favourite lichen species are discovered rising on wooden. The fungal portion of the lichen attaches itself to the bark of the tree and begins to develop there.
However lichens do not develop on each tree, and never in every single place. Some bushes have bark that lichens don’t favor, and these bushes would not have lichen colonies. Different tree species, similar to our Valley Oaks (Quercus lobata), have a bark that’s splendidly tailored to lichens and host many various colonies, all blended collectively. Tree bark underneath favorable rising circumstances can harbor lichen colonies so vibrant and assorted that they resemble miniature coral reefs.
One other frequent tree within the Tehachapi Mountains, Jeffrey Pine (Pinus jeffreyi) it has a tough, fissured bark that favors some lichen species. The bark on the north aspect of Jeffrey Pines present in Tehachapi Mountain Park may be fully inexperienced with abundance of lichen colonies rising on them.
As a result of lichens would not have roots to extract moisture from the soil, they’re fully depending on atmospheric moisture. So our final week of rain and fog has been nice for lichens, and in case you do enterprise exterior the place there are bushes or rocks, search for lichen colonies that at the moment are at their peak of shade and fullness. These unusual and historical organisms are neither crops nor animals, and signify the myriad of various methods that life has tailored to outlive on Earth.
Have a superb week.
Jon Hammond has written for Tehachapi Information for greater than 40 years. Electronic mail tehachapimtnlover@gmail.com.