As the rainy season comes to an end it might be more challenging
to spot a mushroom tucked in the duff while on a walk through
the oak woodlands at Elkhorn Slough. Above you in the oaks,
though, if you look carefully you’ll see many species of lichens
which are visible year round on the trunks, branches, and twigs.
Lichens are like miniature ecosystems, composed of an
association of a fungus, usually an ascomycete (a group of fungi
that includes morels) and certain species of single-celled
plants (green algae) or blue green algae (cyanobacteria) and
support a menagerie of tiny invertebrates barely visible to the
naked eye. The overall shape of the lichen is dictated by the
fungal partner, while the photobiont (green algae or
cyanobacteria) usually lives in discrete layers within the
fungus. In fact, there is debate whether the symbiotic
association between algae and fungi forming the lichens is
equally beneficial to the partners and might instead be a form
of controlled parasitism of algae by fungi. The capti