A
DEFROCKED BIO-NARCISSIST, or HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE LICHENS
By Peter D. Goldfinch
For some years, I now
admit, this writer was a practitioner of the arcane art of bio-narcissism.
I purchased and consumed only the most natural of viands from Wild Oats,
Alfalfa’s, or Whole Foods. No unnatural morsel was ever permitted to enter
my pampered alimentary canal. My physical form was a highly refined
muscular instrument, with rippling, bulging biceps and abs, not merely
athletic or biathletic, but triathletic and beyond. A smoothly functioning
metabolic mill, tuned to the highest pitch by the purest and most au courant
vitamin and mineral supplements. I enjoyed ecstatic sessions of
self-admiration in front of the mirror, reveling in the imagined envy of my
form and function by other, lesser, beings.
But alas, during an exuberant run in the foothills, fate intervened,
causing me to fall. I awakened face to face with strange forms seeming to
grow from a rock. LICHENS!! I have subsequently been unable to think of
much else.
What, then, IS (or, ARE) a lichen? A lichen is the “moss” on Pine
Brook’s moss rock fireplaces. It, or they, are two separate species living
together symbiotically, a fungus and an alga, each contributing uniquely to
the whole.
The fungus provides the structure in which the two species live
together. It also produces numerous enzymes which can digest various
substrates, such as rocks and trees. The fungus can produce substances of
various colors – black, green, yellow, orange, red – that have been used to
make dyes, such as colored the early Harris Tweed, or baskets made by
American Indians.
The alga is basically the photosynthetic partner, and produces various
carbon compounds that nourish the fungus. The fungus even has small
filaments that can penetrate the alga like a straw to such up these
nutrients (rather like a health-shake).
A most remarkable bit of reproductive cooperation by these “marriage
partners” is seen in the soredia, micro projectiles composed of
fungal filaments and alga which can be tossed out of the lichen to go forth
and multiply. Imagine! Two species popped out into space in their joint
reproductive module. Legal note: fungal/algal marriage has not yet been
addressed by legislators.
The two elements of a lichen can be cultured separately. The fungus
needs various complex carbohydrates as nutrients, grows very slowly, and
doesn’t ordinarily generate spore-producing bodies. The alga, by contrast,
grows more rapidly, reproduces, and is quite happy when cultured separately.
Biologically, lichens can survive under extreme conditions. They can
become desiccated down to as little as 2% water content and stop
photosynthesizing until re-hydrated, whereupon growth resumes immediately.
There are about 350 species which grow in Antarctica, at temperatures down
to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to only two species of vascular
plants which can survive there. Some mature specimens are estimated to be
as old as 4,500 years, possibly a function of their extremely slow growth
(increase in radius of 0.1 to 10 mm/year). It is fortunate that we do not
have to devise a Social Security plan for them. There is even one species
that lives totally submerged in water.
Lichens are important to the Ecosystem, being able to slowly digest
rocks and form soil. They are sensitive to atmospheric pollutants, such as
sulfur dioxide, which can kill the algal chlorophyll, and can thereby be
used to monitor pollution in cities. Likewise they accumulate heavy metals
and nuclear fall-out, as in Artic Reindeer Moss, which was used to measure
fall-out from Chernobyl.
I’ve come to admire lichens, which outshine Homo Sapiens in so many
ways. Humans can’t eat rocks, or survive desiccation or go about naked in
subzero Antarctica. Humans can’t make clever little reproductive modules
that carry two species. Above all, lichens don’t whine. It’s come to the
point where I, having given up my solipsistic bio-narcissism, am considering
the formation of a Pine Brook lichen cult, dedicated to the admiration and
worship of lichens.
(Editor’s Note: We are happy to welcome Peter D. Goldfinch back from
migratory journeys to the Canary Islands and elsewhere, which have occupied
him since his last appearance in these pages in 1996. Obsessive readers may
remember some of his earlier contributions, such as “Autobiography of a
Pine Brook Pine Needle,” “Wild Turkeys of Pine Brook,” “The Cuisine of
Black Bears,” or “Wildlife as Pine Brook Houseguests (Stinkbugs).”
From the Pine Brook
Press, Spring, 2000
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