Small things can make a difference in the forest and your place. This week, we’re going to focus on some of those small things - specifically, fungi, moss, and lichens. What these organisms have in common is their smallness, their willingness to cooperate with other organisms, and their ability to adapt and survive. Maybe we can learn something from them. If nothing else, they’re beautiful to observe.
Below you’ll find information about these incredible organisms, which I’ll try to keep as simple as possible, with links if you want to learn more. The purpose of the information is to get you thinking about how miraculous these species are before you go out looking for them. All you really have to do this week, though, is notice their presence.
A Little Background
Life is divided into two domains: Prokaryotes (no nucleus), which include bacteria and archaea (single-celled microbes that resemble bacteria) and Eukaryotes (with a nucleus), which include us humans, as well as other multicellular organisms, like animals, plants, algae, and fungi.
In the 1960’s, American biologist Lynn Margulis proposed a revolutionary idea (at the time) that symbiosis - when two different organisms live together and mutually benefit each other - play a central part in the evolution of life. For example, eukaryotes arose when a single-celled organism engulfed a bacterium, which continued to live symbiotically inside of it.
500 million years ago, plants emerged from the water, with the help of fungi for their root systems. Lichens, which are a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga and/or cyanobacteria, were one of the first organisms to become established, and they helped to make the soil where plants would thrive. Mosses were one of those first plants. The relationship between plants and fungi gave rise to the world we know today.
Source: Live Science
LICHENS
“Lichens blur the definition of what it is to be an individual because they are not one being, but two: a fungus and an alga. Different as can be, yet joined in a symbiosis so close that their union is like a marriage. The balance of giving and taking is dynamic, shifting from moment to moment. Their shared lives benefit the whole ecosystem.” ~ Condensed from Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Lichens are incredible and beautiful. They have no roots, leaves, or flowers and they thrive in places where there is no soil. Each organism that makes up the lichen has a role to play. The alga can photosynthesize, so it provides a good source of nutrients. The fungus provides minerals and cyanobacteria fixes nitrogen. Lichens are a powerful example of reciprocity at work.
Lichens help the environment in several ways. Besides fixing nitrogen, they can break down rocks and release minerals, which leads to soil formation. They absorb pollution and their presence is an indication of cleaner air. Some types of lichen are a winter food source for animals; for example, caribou forage for reindeer lichen.
Source: Live Science
MOSSES
”There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the dialectic of moss on stone – an interface of immensity and minuteness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yang.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss
Mosses are nonvascular plants that grow in wet environments, like rainforests, wetlands, and alpine ecosystems. They produce spores, not seeds, and don’t grow flowers or have roots. You’ll find them everywhere - on driveways and sidewalks, brick walls and other man-made structures, and on tree stumps in forests. They are nature’s carpet.
Mosses are the epitome of smallness, like miniature forests. They inhabit places where other plants can’t grow. Mosses can’t transport water very well so they group together to absorb and retain water, creating a spongy mat. Look closely and you’ll see thousands of tiny individual mosses.
Besides being beautifully soft and green, they also provide habitat and food for insects and other invertebrates. They filter and hold water, which stabilizes the ground and they absorb CO2 from the air. Humans use mosses for packing food, insulating houses, and even as fuel in the form of peat. Birds use mosses to line their nests.
Kimmerer says that mosses are deeply bonded to and flourish only where they’re born. In other words, they’re tied to their place, where they give way more than they take and help the entire ecosystem flourish.
Source: Basic Biology
FUNGI
“They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving in space, inducing visions, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behavior, and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere.” ~ Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life
I find fungi fascinating. They came out of the sea more than 2 billion years ago and, arguably, made life possible. There may be as many as 3.8 million species of fungi in the world, although scientists believe that 90% are not yet identified. A small percentage of these are yeasts and molds. Mostly when we think of fungi, we think of mushrooms but actually mushrooms are the fruit of particular fungi. Mostly, fungi are hidden – inside of us or underground.
Underground fungi, called mycorrhizal, are similar to lichens in that they partner with plants in a symbiotic exchange of food and minerals. Their living body is called mycelium, tiny thread-like filaments called hyphae, which secrete enzymes and acids that break down organic material into something they can absorb. They weave their way among the roots of plants and trees, providing nutrients and helping to prevent disease. They are an underground communications system, sometimes called the “wood wide web,” a coin termed by Suzanne Simard and explained in her book, Finding the Mother Tree.
Fungi are a hot topic for research today on their potential benefits to humans. But we can’t forget their importance to the ecosystem as a whole. In Louis Schwartzberg’s fantastic film, Fantastic Fungi, they are called “the digestive tract of the forest.” Fungi decompose material at the end of life and regenerate the soil so that new life can grow. The film highlights the work of Paul Stamets, a mycologist who discovered four new species of psilocybin (psychedelic) mushrooms. I encourage you to watch Stamets’s TED talk, where he outlines “six ways that fungi can save the world.”
Fungi can also cause serious infections and fungal diseases are increasing across the world due to unsustainable agricultural practices which reduce the ability of plants to form relationships with the beneficial fungi on which they depend.
Lichens, mosses, and fungi are small and powerful. They can teach us a lot about survival, cooperation, and how everything is interconnected.
Practice
This week, just see and appreciate fungi, moss, and lichens as fellow inhabitants of your place. How many different examples of fungi, moss, and lichens can you find in your place this week? Take note of where they are growing and what the reciprocal relationships are. Revel in their beauty, longevity, and power. Take a loupe or magnifying glass with you to allow you to look closer.
Share what you discover in the comments or on Instagram and add the hashtag #seeingyourplace2022.
Resources
I was first introduced to the remarkable capabilities of fungi, moss, and lichens through Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books. I wrote about lichens in this post, A Land of Reciprocity.
Get an introduction to Merlin Sheldrake’s work through this podcast episode.
Articles: Mushroom communication via the Guardian, Ancient Green Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Emergence Magazine, and Advice from some of earth’s oldest beings, lichens by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Fungi featured in the NYTimes - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/27/climate/climate-change-fungi.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share