photo by Greg Hofmann

2/10/03: Is this the produce section at a Martian supermarket? Actually it's a cluster of several species of foliose (leafy) lichen growing on the Reserve's main gate (the yellow lichen with cup-like fruiting bodies is a coastal species, Xanthoria parietina). Lichens are a combination of a fungus and a green (or blue-green) alga living together in symbiosis: The fungus gets food from the alga, and the alga gets protection from physical injury, drought, and too much light. It's the fungus that disseminates new lichens, sending out spores. If the fungus germinates and finds a suitable alga, it surrounds the algal cells and a new lichen develops.