Marco image of British Soldier Lichen

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Marco image of British Soldier Lichen. British Soldiers is a lichen which received its name from its similarity to the uniforms worn by English soldiers during the Revolutionary War. It is not just one organism, but a fungus and algae living together. The fungus in British Soldiers is called Cladonia cristatella and the algae is known as Trebouxia erici. Each part of the British Soldier Lichen is helping the other. The fungus provides the algae with a "house" to live in, and the algae makes food for the fungus. Each organism could survive on its own, but they do much better together. It grows very slowly, one or two millimeters per year.

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Size: 5100px × 3400px
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Photo credit: © Laszlo Podor / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: alga, algae, botany, british, cladonia, cladoniaceae, close-, cristatella, erici, extreme, focus, fungi, fungus, lecanorales, lecanoromycetes, lichen, macro, mutualistic, nature, organism, plant, red, relationship, selective, soldier, thallus, trebouxia