Group:

Family:

---

SciName: LICHEN

Contributor: Chris Helms

Website: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0504.htm

Fun Fact(s): It wasn't until 1867 that the dual symbiotic nature of lichens was described by the Swiss botanist Simon Schwendener. Schwendener's hypothesis resulted in a bitter controversy among his colleagues who considered the green cells within lichens to be reproductive bodies of the fungus called gonidia. Free-living algae which resembled the green cells were considered to be gonidia which had escaped from the lichen thallus. Writing in Volume 13 of Popular Science Review (1874), the prominent English botanist J.M. Crombie referred to Schwendener's hypothesis as an "unnatural union between a captive Algal damsel and a tyrant Fungal master." Also be sure to read the related article about Beatrix Potter.

---