Lichen: The Mysterious Love Child of Fungi and Algae

A useful principle in the story of life is that you should never underestimate algae or cyanobacteria. They’ll just always manage to surprise you, and more importantly, to remind you that everything you have comes down, eventually, to them.

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[arnautarnautsen]

I actually read that recent research proves that a lichen always has one species of alga and *two* species of fungi. I was surprised nobody noticed in, you know, some 200 years, but I can't see it in these amazing images, either.

[timothygreer]

I used to teach the 5th-grade science class how Alice Algae met Freddie Fungus and they took a Lichen to each other. Thanks to recent studies I can't do that anymore without explaining what a throuple is

[RJFerret]

I remember a chance encounter at a park with a fellow sitting on a rock looking over lichen. "Nice day, what are you looking at?" He told me about the symbiosis of lichen. I'd wondered since how integrated the cells were, thanks for showing such!

[cineblazer]

You know, I've really started to take a lichen to this channel. The writing is excellent and Hank is such a fungi!

[Spo]

The level of quality this channel brings to every single video is just staggering.

[RichardLaurence]

I remember when my local council in England proudly announced that someone had discovered a new type of lichen on a pavement. Sadly, during analysis it was noticed that the ‘lichen’ smelled faintly of mint and was actually chewing gum!

[daxbjornstad-northern]

I’m just reading through the comments, and this channel has the sweetest fan base <3

[yam-ingtonjr]

your narritives and visuals give me a sense of peace while fueling my curiosity in a way no other channel has been able to achieve. i come here to relax and learn about little tiny guys, all while wearing my cozy microcosm crewneck which goes harder than any other sweater i own

[pgknippel]

If this is who I think it is narrating, thank you SO much for a) slowing the narration down and b) laying off all that redundant text. Much more relaxing this way…thanks again, excellent content as per usual.

[spiderdude]

Because they can both photosynthesize and break down minerals for food, lichens are one of the first lifeforms to recolonize after disasters like forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Scientists use the appearance of lichens as an indicator that an ecological area is recovering

[Nx.]

"We don't know the tings we don't know".


Equally profound and disturbing at the same time.

[blackflare]

maybe lichen is kind of like what life was on earth before it got more complex. Similar to how we eventually somehow captured mitochondria and integrated it, there was probably a time when our ancestor organisms were still just symbiotically coming togther.

[gastonmarian]

Our perspective on the world is always limited by the language culture uses to describe it. It's like Godel's incompleteness theorem, there will always be true things about the world that stand apart from language, the framework we use to explain it to ourselves. It's the task of poets and visionaries to create new models, pushing the language of understanding right up to the boundary of what's speakable

[zJoriz]

Funny, I was thinking about lichen recently. Haven't washed my car in a while and there's something reddish growing on the roof. Was thinking of sending samples of it to James, if he's interested

[glossaria]

I developed (ha!) a love affair with lichen when I got a camera with a microscope setting, that lets me take incredibly zoomed-in photos at extremely close range. I discovered an entire garden of lichen growing atop one of the old wooden fence posts of my mom's garden. The closer you get, the stranger and more beautiful they are. And of course, they also frequently play host to my OTHER favorite microorganism, the tardigrade!

[renzbongers]

The photos were amazing! You should make posters of them!

[DenUil]

What I don't yet understand is how a lichen is formed. Is it a fungus that meets an algae and in a kind off wedding for the lichen, or is the lichen something that produces spores that grow new lichen?

[optinoptimist]

beautiful video!! thank you again! it left me with some thoughts, and i'll go ahead and share them:

it seems that opposition is easy to spot because it can feel disruptive and scary, but more broadly, everything is so cooperative and connected that things like opposition and individuality just stand out so starkly against the contrast, which makes those things feel like the more prevailing trends; however, when all things are considered, the level of internal and external cooperation is on an entirely different scale. much of that which feels like opposition is simply interactions and building blocks that are a part of a larger scale cooperation. it's only when things of the same scale cooperate that we even call it cooperation, which is a mistake.

love yall out there, stay up!!! <3

[muslalah]

I’m lichen this channel! So great. Keep up the good work!

[TorQueMoD]

The part around 7:58 where you say "The way we talk about science makes it feel like we're done" is one of the best lines I've ever heard! Great video!