This morning, as I was heading outside, camera in hand, to photograph the heather in the flower beds, I noticed the lichens growing on the stone wall of the house. This particular group are tiny so I had never really stopped to look at them before. The out of focus areas are not the result of any manipulation, simply the fact that the stone is not flat and the DoF is only 2-3 mm here.
Lichens are interesting as they are a composite organism - a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an alga. The earliest traces of lichens date back 400 million years; this stone wall was built in around 1750 so these lichens are not that old!
I took a picture of lichen this summer. I loved the pattern and then used it to blend with a digital paper to create a new paper. It's so hard to believe this is a living organism.
Beautiful texture and lovely colors.
I have always liked lichen and liverworts, but most Americans don't pay much attention to them. I was charmed last time I was in the UK to find, in Waterstones bookstore, a laminated field guide to the lichens of British churchyards. I bought one, but unfortunately, I'm actually content to look at a stone with one growing on it and say, "that's a lichen," and leave it at that!
February 1st, 2014
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Ian
I have always liked lichen and liverworts, but most Americans don't pay much attention to them. I was charmed last time I was in the UK to find, in Waterstones bookstore, a laminated field guide to the lichens of British churchyards. I bought one, but unfortunately, I'm actually content to look at a stone with one growing on it and say, "that's a lichen," and leave it at that!