Soldiering on

I came across these yesterday on my walk with Little Dog so headed back today for a Tiny Tuesday photo.  I’ve never inspected lichen but took a few photos of different varieties and some of them are really rather attractive.  

Today I discovered that lichen is a fungus and an algae living together.  The fungus provides the algae with a home and the algae makes the fungus dinner.  I thought the red bits on this British Soldier lichen might be flowers - kind of - it’s the bit that makes the spores.  They only grow 1-2 mm a year and this one must be at least 4 years old to be able to make spores.

I had an even shorter ride today with a bigger hill and even less light but thoroughly enjoyed it.




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