lichen

Out on my morning walk, I stopped to look at lichen growing on a blackthorn bush. When I got home, there were a hundred things I should have been doing instead of looking for information about lichen, but you know, It's fascinating stuff. Apparently used for such things as wrapping Egyptian mummies, it is a combination of a fungus and either algae or bacteria. And some lichens may be 9000 years old...I could go on, but perhaps you have more urgent things to be getting on with as well..