British Soldiers and Bokeh

This is a group with some nice bokeh!

More about this fascinating lichen from the article Island Creek's Ecology: British Soldiers

British Soldiers is a lichen which gets its name from its resemblance to the uniforms worn by English soldiers during the Revolutionary War. A lichen is not just one organism, but a fungus and algae living together to form a new organism.

The fungus in British Soldiers is called Cladonia cristatella. The algae is known as Trebouxia erici. Because lichens take the name of the fungus part of the relationship, British Soldiers is also known as Cladonia cristatella.

Each part of the lichen appears to help the other. The fungus provides the algae with a "house" to live in, and the algae makes food for the fungus. Each organism could live on its own, but they seem to do much better together. The algae can also form lichens with other species of fungi, but the fungus cannot make a lichen with any algae other than Trebouxia erici.

The main body of a lichen is called a "thallus." You can only have a thallus when the fungus and algae have joined. The bright colors of British Soldiers would not be there if the fungus was alone; instead it would look like a white blob.

The red part of British Soldiers makes spores. Spores are a lot like seeds from plants, in that they can travel by wind and start a new fungus. The new fungus will not become British Soldiers, though, until the algae joins it. (Please visit the full article for more information!