I'm trying to sort out the types of rock lichens growing on this restored pasture wall and having a painful time of it. Sometimes it’s hard for an old man without a science background to make sense of life, especially when some of the explanatory literature seems denser than these rocks.
But I’m heartened to find out that I’m in good company: Lichens, themselves – whether growing on rocks, trees, or elsewhere – seem to be inherently confused about what they are. They’re classified as fungi, but they’re not fungi; that is, they’re not JUST fungi. Lichens apparently are symbiotic combinations of a fungus and either a green alga (a plant) or a blue-green alga (a bacterium). But the dominant partner apparently always is the fungus.
It’s a start. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on April 7 and 21, 2025.)