Mycology | Fungi, Mushrooms, Lichens (2024)

FAQs

Do mycologists study lichen? ›

Field Museum mycologists are interested in documenting and understanding the diversity and biogeography of fungi, the effect of human activity on this diversity, the evolutionary relationships among the fungi, and the mutually beneficial symbioses (mutualisms) such as lichens and mycorrhizae that fungi form with plants ...

Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an alga. The dominant partner is the fungus, which gives the lichen the majority of its characteristics, from its thallus shape to its fruiting bodies.

While each lichen is a relationship between two partners, they are not truly independent and can't survive or reproduce without each other. Lichens are able to survive in places where neither the fungus nor the algal partner could survive alone.

Lichens are neither fungi nor plants – they are both! The outer skin and internal structure of a lichen is made of strands of fungal hyphae. Interspersed among the strands inside the lichen are individual cells of algae.

Erik Acharius (10 October 1757 – 14 August 1819) was a Swedish botanist who pioneered the taxonomy of lichens and is known as the "father of lichenology". Acharius was famously the last pupil of Carl Linnaeus.

Lichens can be extremely long-lived, with some considered to be among the oldest living things on earth. Lichens grow slowly, with some only adding around 0.5mm per year. Some Antarctic lichens have estimated ages of up to 5,000 years old.

Water and Soap. The classic mixture of water and soap is enough to remove lichen from most surfaces.

Lichens have a lengthy lifespan, and some are regarded as some of the oldest living species. With an estimated age of 8,600 years, Rhizocarpon geographicum, also referred to as the Map lichen, is the planet's oldest lichen.

Now the hunt is on to find it in the wild -- if it still exists. The lichen, named Cora Timucua in honor of Florida's Timucua people, is critically endangered, even more so than the federally protected Florida perforate reindeer lichen, and is possibly extinct.

Bristletails, barklice, katydids, grasshoppers, webspinners, butterflies, moths, moth larvae, lacewing larvae, mites, spiders, snails, slugs, and many beetles live on, camouflage themselves as, or eat lichens.

Are lichens symbiotic or parasitic? ›

A lichen is not a single organism; it is a stable symbiotic association between a fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria. Like all fungi, lichen fungi require carbon as a food source; this is provided by their symbiotic algae and/or cyanobacteria, that are photosynthetic.

As a lichenologist, a scientist who studies lichens, Manuela's research is focused on understanding the diversity of lichens.

A mycologist is someone who works with fungi, which are living organisms such as molds, yeast, and mushrooms. My research focuses on the diversity and evolution of mushroom-forming fungi. I'm an academic mycologist, so along with doing research, I teach undergraduate and graduate students.

mycology, the study of fungi, a group that includes the mushrooms and yeasts. Many fungi are useful in medicine and industry.

While a botanist studies plants, and a zoologist studies animals, a mycologist is a person who studies the world of fungi. Mycologists try and learn the biochemical traits of these organisms, as well as how humans have interacted with and used fungi throughout history!