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Partners for Life |
| Section: NATURAL SCIENCE / SCIENCE ESSAY |
| Author: Dwight G. Smith |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 4/1/2003 |
| Size: 2,751 Words, 18,357 Characters |
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From the poles to the tropics, in both terrestrial and marine habitats, a group of creatures has colonized much of our planet's surface. They grow on rocks, soil, trees, stone walls, old buildings, and even the backs of some animals. Many occur in bright shades of orange, yellow, and blue; others are dull white, gray, or green; still others are black. Yet we generally overlook them, ignore them, or mistake them for mosses or other plant life. Even Carolus Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist known as the father of taxonomy, made the error of calling them the most worthless plants on earth.
These creatures are lichens--and no, they are neither plants nor worthless. Rather, each one is a composite of two or three different types of organisms from separate kingdoms: a fungus (Kingdom Fungi...
. . .
...tribute so much but are acknowledged so little.
On the Internet
American Bryological and Lichenological Society
www.unomaha.edu/abls
Arizona State University Lichen Herbarium
ces.asu.edu/ASULichens
Introduction to Lichens
www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fungi/lichens/lichens.html
Lichens of North America
www.lichen.com
World of Lichenology
www.botany.hawaii.edu/cpsu/lichen1.html
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