Lichens...?

[Curt Seeliger]

On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, Chuck Dunn wrote:

> A few gelatinous lichens from the tropics harbor cyanobacteris, and 
> cyanobacteria will grow on the surface or anything, including lichens.  
> But most lichens are ascomycete fungi and chlorophyta.

Not just in the tropics, and not just gelatinous lichens either -
cyanolichens grow wherever it's moist enough for them to photosynthesize,
and often form foliar thalli. Here in the PNW we have many cyanolichens,
some of which are 'survey and manage' species, meaning that the Forest
Service can't cut stands in which they are found.  Terrestrial
cyanolichens like Collema (gelatinous thalli) are often important in
creating soil crusts in moderately arid areas, reducing soil erosion.

Not all cyanolichens use cyanobacteria as their primary photobionts.  Some
develop clusters of Nostoc in airtight chambers and use them soley to fix
nitrogen.

> > #1 what are endosymbionts? name a member of chlorophyta which is an 
> > endosymbiont and its host.Endosymbionts live their entire lives within
> > their host.  The only ones I know of are fungi living in grasses. 

Trebouxia and Trentepohlia are both commonly lichenized genera of green
algae.  They are often found free-living and thus don't necessarily live
their entire lives within a host.

> > So, this is probably bad netiquite,...

Not at all.

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