Lichens on a branch
karenphillips
There is a strange beauty in a branch laden with lichens.
Bright colours do not often assail but there are surprising splashes of mustard yellow to be found by the careful lichen-hunter. Search the wet woodland, stop to breathe in the musty scent of nature and as you exhale textures and shapes hidden by the mottled, dappled light will come into view.
Some lichens resemble the horns of a majestic stag, others flutter eyelash fronds. Some grow like pancakes before they are flipped, others like coral, waving in warm currents of air.
The plain truth is that lichens are not one thing but two — part fungi, part algae or bacteria.
The beauty is that these two come together and form a whole that is so much more than the mere sum of it parts.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Debra Broughton and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
