LICHEN AND MOSS

In the centre of the picture below is a bright green clump of moss.  Mosses - and there are over 600 species in Britain - are primitive plants with no vessels to carry water and spores instead of seeds.  They like damp places and are often the first to colonise rocks and even concrete.  Here the moss - probably Fork Moss (Dicranum scoparium) - is growing on a dead ash branch.  

  

The grey-green growths are lichens (pronounced 'liken' rather than 'litchen').  I find mosses difficult to identify but there are over 1800 lichen species in Britain, so no chance.  They are a good indicator of air quality. As a general rule the more complex the formation the cleaner the air.  Crusty ones grow anywhere, leaf lichens need slightly cleaner air and the very whiskery ones require very unpolluted air.

In the picture below you can see fruiting bodies developing.

Lichens are mini-ecosystems that combine two or more organisms: a fungus species combined with either algae or cyanobacteria.  The fungus provides the structure and the other organisms, usually green, provide a food factory via photosynthesis.  The fungus is the benign jailor of the algae or bacteria.

Get yourself a 10x hand lens to discover the beauty of these tiny life forms.