Symbiosis For Texture

Daily Note, Poetry, And Art

Lichen Notes

Every day, a photograph, a poem. And today, a bit of art.

On my walk with Guthrie today I found this colorful granite boulder, filled with lichen. And one with fluffy, leafy lichen.

Lichens are not a plant. They are unique creatures all over the earth that is the combination of two creatures: fungi and alga in a symbiotic relationship where the alga provide food for the fungi to grow and therefore extending the life of the alga. Lichens help us by absorbing pollution and producing oxygen. And they are beautiful.

These lichen on the boulders are crustose lichen, attaching like a crust flatly to rocks, logs, your roof. There are two other forms of lichen:

Lichens have specific growth forms, the parts of fungi and alga:

I find them fascinating; they grow in colorful bursts on the coulee walls.

To learn more about lichens, visit these sites:

• US Forest Service: All About Lichens [click links at bottom of pages for more]
• Fun with Lichen: Lichenland, funded by the National Science Foundation

And so an “about lichens” poem…

Poetry

Symbiosis

Fungi and alga,
a lichen:
fungi need food
and alga provide
through photosynthesis
on top of the partnership;
though often found with moss,
which retains water,
lichens are not plants,
but benefit from
the moss moisture;
alga feeds fungi,
fungi gives structure
and growth;
each helps the other:
symbiosis

Sheri Edwards
02.02.24 033.365.24
Poetry/Photography
crustose lichen on granite boulder

And Art

One of the reasons I snapped that top photo of the rock with lichens is because it will make a great texture for my art.

Here is that lichen photo used in two different modes to create texture on one of my art pieces:

Here are the adjustments I made to the lichen photo:

With just an iPhone, I can snap a photo of a texture — tree bark, brick wall, pebbles — and adjust the photo to enhance the color or value and, with a blend mode on a layer above a piece of art, create an overall texture. Fascinating, isn’t it?

You can find this piece with different texture in my Spoonflower Oddball Collection.

Enjoy Your Day

So, take your camera / phone out and capture some textures for your art work. And perhaps find a lichen colony that will fit your texture needs!