Canyon Country Plants
Desert: Lichen
Lichen are an intricate blending of two quite different primitive plants. Lichens are a living combination of an alga and a fungus, growing together in such close companionship that they cannot be separated-they cannot live apart. They are so tightly intertwined that they are able to exchange nourishment directly through their cells. The term obligate symbiosis was coined in 1877 to describe their relationship.
Many lichens look gray-green in color because the gray body of the fungus partially hides the green alga. Some of the acids produced by the fungus may also color the fungus bright yellow, red, orange, white, or even black.
Lichens are the true pioneers of the plant world, the only life-form able to make a living on naked rock. After a lichen colony has become established, it begins to very slowly make soil by decomposition of the rock, by accumulating dust from the wind, and by its own carbohydrate production. The soil in turn makes a footing for mosses, then grasses and ferns, and finally flowering plants and trees. But this process takes centuries.
See also Cryptobiotic Soil.
Photos
Notes
The main photo on this page was taken in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.
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