Is Lichens A Plant Or A Animal

Most Lichens

There are approximately 3,600 species of lichens in North America and those are just the ones we know about! New discoveries are beingness made every year. Lichens are establish all across North America and all over the world. They are found in a vast multifariousness of habitats and climates, from the Sonoran desert on the Coronado National Forest, to the tall tundra of Alaskan mountains on the Chugach National Forest, and in the tropical rainforests of the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico.

What are lichens?

Accept you always seen a lichen and knew that it was a lichen? Not many people know what lichens are, and who would? They seem as though they are from another planet! Lichens are bizarre organisms and no two are alike.

Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of ii separate organisms, a fungus and an alga. The ascendant partner is the fungus, which gives the lichen the majority of its characteristics, from its thallus shape to its fruiting bodies. The alga can be either a green alga or a cyanobacteria, otherwise known as blue-green alga. Many lichens volition have both types of algae.

What are fungi?

Fungi are a various group of organisms that are in their ain kingdom (Fungi), separate from plants. Fungi practice not incorporate chlorophyll or any other means of producing their own nutrient so they rely on other organisms for nutrition. Fungi are widely known for their role in the decomposition of organic matter. They are besides necessary for the survival of the ecosystem around them, such as partnering with plants and copse for nutrients and survival.

Lichens are another such partnership for fungi to proceeds nutrients from another organism. The algal partner photosynthesizes and provides food for the fungus, then it can grow and spread.

Sclerotia veratri, a cup fungus. Sclerotia veratri, a cup mucus. These types of fungi are the most common fungal partner in lichen biology. Photo by Chris Wagner, U.S. Woods Service.

What are algae?

Algae are in some other kingdom (Protista) separate from plants and fungi. At that place are several types of algae: green, brown, red, gilt. They tin can survive in salt water and in freshwater on their own, and in whatsoever environment when part of a lichen relationship.

Although cyanobacteria are called blue-greenish algae, they are actually leaner, and are part of the bacteria kingdom, Monera. The "blue" in the mutual name refers to the fact that they need to alive in h2o, and "green algae" refers to their photosynthetic abilities, like green algae.

Peltigera britannica, dog pelt lichen. Peltigera britannica, dog-pelt lichen. Observe the brilliant dark-green surface that is green algae showing through. Look closely and you lot volition meet dark spots. Those spots are pockets of cyanobacteria. Photograph by Karen Dillman, U.S. Forest Service.

What Lichens Are Not

Isn't lichen that mossy stuff on rocks and trees? When people think of lichens, many of them think of them equally a kind of moss. That could not be further from the truth.

Although moss and lichens are both called non-vascular plants, only mosses are plants. Mosses are included in a grouping of non-vascular plants called bryophytes. Mosses are believed to be the ancestors of the plants nosotros run across today, similar copse, flowers, and ferns. Lichens, on the other paw, are not similar in whatever way to mosses or other members of the plant kingdom.

Cladina arbuscula, also known as reindeer moss, surrounded by real moss. Cladina arbuscula, a lichen, is besides known as reindeer moss. In this picture, it is surrounded by existent moss. This species is rare in Colorado. Photograph by Gay Austin, U.S. Forest Service.

unkown moss. Await closely at this moss. Notice how leaf-like it is. The structures on top produce spores. They are the main way of moss reproduction. Photo by Charles Peirce, Michigan Wildflowers.

Although mosses are very primitive, they yet have institute-like structures that look like and function like leaves, stems and roots. They have chloroplasts throughout their entire bodies and can photosynthesize from all sides of their structures.

Lichens, on the other hand, are completely different. They do not have whatsoever roots, stems or leaves and their chloroplasts are independent only in the algae on the top surface of the lichen.

Alectoria sarmentosa, witch's hair, a lichen, on Douglas fir copse in the Pacific Northwest. Retrieve non to misfile lichens with moss. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service.

Xanthoparmelia sp. on a rock with a moss. Xanthoparmelia sp., a lichen, on a rock with a moss. Tin y'all tell which is the lichen and which is the moss? Photograph by Doug Ladd.

What lichens and mosses do have in common are size and habitats. In fact, mosses retain h2o, which is what lichens use to prolong their growth cycle. That'due south why most lichen pictures volition have mosses in the photos.

So, the adjacent time you see a bunch of "mossy" stuff hanging from a tree or sitting on a stone, ask yourself, "Is that a lichen or a moss?"

Why are Lichens Important?

Lichens are important for several reasons. I of the well-nigh obvious is that they are beautiful to await at. How enchanting would the Pacific Northwest be without the long drapes of Alectoria sarmentosa (witch'due south hair) hanging from the branches of the old Douglas firs and Sitka bandbox? How colorful would the rocks and cliffs exist in the Rocky Mountains without the reds, yellows, and greens of the crust lichens? Without these living creatures hanging off of trees or clinging to rocks, our natural areas would look pretty boring and a niggling more lifeless.

Alectoria sarmentosa. Photo by Karen Dillman.

Lichen-covered granite boulders. Lichen-covered boulders. Photo by Doug Ladd.

Some other important function of lichens is that they provide a mode of survival in harsh environments where algae cannot normally survive. Since the fungus can protect its algae, these normally water-requiring organisms tin live in dry, sunny climates without dying, every bit long as there are occasional rain showers or flooding to allow them recharge and shop nutrient for the next drought menstruum. Because lichens enable algae to alive all over the world in many different climates, they also provide a means to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through photosynthesis into oxygen, which we all demand to survive.

One of the ways lichens directly do good humans is through their ability to blot everything in their atmosphere, especially pollutants. Lichens tin provide the states with valuable information near the surroundings around usa. Any heavy metals or carbon or sulfur or other pollutants in the atmosphere are captivated into the lichen thallus. Scientists tin extract these toxins and determine the levels that are present in our temper. The U.s. Wood Service National Lichens & Air Quality Database and Clearinghouse provides more information about lichen biomonitoring and how it is helping federal country managers run across federal and bureau responsibilities to notice, map, evaluate trends, and assess the ecological impacts of air pollutants.