I happened to have shot last weekend a couple of interesting pictures of a lichen (green or blue green algae and fungi living symbiotically) from a tree in my back yard. (The limb had been brought down during the recent hurricane Isabel!)The first photo is a macro shot from a few centimeters away. Second is under a stereo microscope with ca. 10X magnification. Finally a shot under a compound microscope at ca. 400X of a small bit of material picked from near the surface of the lichen and placed in water under a cover slip. Visible in the last photo are algal cells, one in particular, that produce food via photosynthesis for the fungi that live symbiotically with the algae. Hyphae of the fungus are easily seen in the vacinity of the lone algal cell.

Alan Rulis, Annandale, VA, USA

All comments to the author Alan Rulis are welcomed.

 



 



 

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