image transcript:

the lichen knowledge iceberg i have constructed on request.

jhanettesticle replies:
we cant make lichen happen in a lab? have we tried taking the parts that make up a lichen and throwing them together in a petri dish?

bogleech replies:
The deranged fucked up dark sided thing about lichen is that the exact species comprising it don’t even necessarily determine the type of lichen. You can have what seems to be the same lichen in two different locations using different symbiotes, or two different looking lichen turn out to have the very same symbiotes. So it’s not even that they form when the right component species meet up, because that doesn’t always have a predictable result. Something in the environment tells them to build a lichen. Something that makes sense to them but has no meaning to us yet. Whatever it is cannot be imitated by us, in fact if you move a lichen indoors - or move it at all, really - it’s all but guaranteed to stop being a lichen or just due, even if you try to recreate the climate you found it in!

Only one truth is certain:

Lichens are things.

end of transcript

reposted from tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/bogleech/756047802259341312

  • @[email protected]
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    56
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    2 months ago

    For anyone else who was curious about lichens covering “a not insignificant amount” of the earth’s surface, a quick google tells me it’s about 7% (according to e.g. new york times, scientific american, etc)

    Edit: oh and estimating the age of an exposed surface by lichen diameter is called lichenometry. I’m seeing stuff about it being used in geological contexts but it makes sense that it could work for old buildings too

  • JackbyDev
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    502 months ago

    We can’t even grow most bacteria in labs. It’s a pretty small subset that work with the traditional agar petri dish set up.

  • Cyrus Draegur
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    442 months ago

    i imagine alien hivemind organisms looking at earth and our cities upon it and thinking “what are these growths and why aren’t the samples we collect producing them?”

  • @[email protected]
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    2 months ago

    I would like to propose an addition to the Forbidden Knowledge list:

    1. Do not teach crabs how to read
    2. Do not tell any lichen that “red wunz go fasta”
    • @[email protected]
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      192 months ago

      Will we get Orkz one day when some mad scientist decides to cross lichen with Florida man?

      • @leftzero
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        112 months ago

        I’m sure it’s not unusual for Florida men to have lichen growing on them, so we’re probably halfway there already.

    • @[email protected]
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      542 months ago

      The short answer: fungus and algae work together and create a multi-organism structure.

      The medium answer: [this meme]

      The long answer: [years of graduate school]

    • @[email protected]
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      462 months ago

      It’s a thing that grows on trees and rocks mostly, but can and does grow on basically anything in the goldilocks conditions. They feel like crispy moss if you touch them.

          • nickwitha_k (he/him)
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            82 months ago

            To those unfamiliar, this is the translation from goth to non-goth. Any non-goths hearing Robert Smith here make this statement would perceive someone closer to:

            ~me too~

            Subscribe for more fun facts from “Too Sad to Sack Rome: Understanding Goths”

            • @[email protected]
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              2 months ago

              If

              *off screen* me too!

              makes more sense to me than

              ~me too~

              Does that make me a goth?

        • Troy
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          52 months ago

          Just need to build a lab in a graveyard then. Checkmate lichens!

        • @[email protected]
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          2 months ago

          What if it’s how our souls are released. Man I’m high and that thought still gives me the call of the void lol

    • @[email protected]
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      342 months ago

      I’m no biologist, but I’m pretty sure that this photo I took a while back has a lot of lichen:

      That flakey & coral-looking stuff growing on the branches should be lichen.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 months ago

      It’s the opposite of not lichen.

      And that’s both a pithy retort, as well as an accurate reflection of the ultimate gist of the infographic lol

  • @[email protected]
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    292 months ago

    I’ve never thought about it. I always just assumed lichen was just a specific type of moss.

  • @leftzero
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    162 months ago

    Is a forest with a good mycorrhizal network a huge lichen…?

  • @[email protected]M
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    132 months ago

    Meanwhile, it’s BFF moss is something like 90% dead plant matter and just a derpy slow sponge. Pinky and the brain.

  • Angry_Autist (he/him)
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    102 months ago

    I fucking hate the fact that this 100 story tall image format has become the default on the internet…

  • Shhalahr
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    102 months ago

    So, I opened this without looking at the source community. I’m on an RPG meme community as well. I was actually predicting a pun on a certain phylactery-using undead. Only as it was loading did I realize I had a chance for the science memes sub instead.

    • (⬤ᴥ⬤)OP
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      102 months ago

      i did try to work a lich joke in the title but i couldn’t think of anything natural or forced enough to be funny. submissions are open though