Fungi combine with algae or bacteria to create Lichen, a composite organism. Native Americans were reported to have visited Pilchuck Mountain every summer to collect and dry lichen, the average family collecting many pounds of various types (but never yellow)! Europeans setting foot here occurred less than 250 years ago, what was it that the Indigenous Peoples had discovered about Lichen? We know so little. Lichen represents a partnership in Nature between fungi and algae, bacteria and perhaps even yeast and often come thick with rotifers who may assist in the Lichen’s existence.
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Rotifera/
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/03/25/lichens/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022316623196283
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/fungi-and-lichens/beard-lichens/
https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13002-022-00550-8
https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/reindeer-lichen
https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2016/07/25/lichen-the-threesome/
Which of these animals is known for their foraging on Lichen?
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