August 6, 2017

Loving lichen and "‘the intense feeling of reality, of just being here."

A beautiful short film showing Kerry Knudsen, curator of lichens at the University of California Riverside, and lots of sharp focus closeups of lichen. Nice ending with Knudsen relating his interest in lichen to his experiences using LSD when he was young:


15 comments:

Sharc said...

Interesting pictures and analysis. I learned something. Music is annoying. Dopey dude is nothing special and needs to be one with his shower for a while.

Fritz said...

It has no economic value, but it pays his salary.

Ann Althouse said...

"Dopey dude is nothing special and needs to be one with his shower for a while."

Remember, lichen will grow on anything that doesn't move. So if you want lichen to grow on you, don't move.

William said...

I hope to be reincarnated as lichen. They seem to have a very laid back life style.

Laslo Spatula said...

Thank God that shit only grows in Lichenstein.

I am Laslo.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
At the bottom of every grandiose hallucinatory swamp-draining vaulted ambition is the truth ...

“ ... I’m a part of nature, just a small part, like the lichens themselves, I’m just a small part that will pass by very quickly ...”

Symbiosis in a nutshell. Lichens and love-algae. Whole colonies adore global warming.

Lichenometrically, lichens have better survival success rates than marcroeconomists. Lichens win!

mockturtle said...

Funny, I had exactly the same 'revelation' on LSD: The feeling of being a mere speck in the universe but it was not a bad feeling, at all.

Alaska has some beautiful forms of lichen, incidentally.

Anonymous said...

Maybe if he didn't do the LSD he would be studying a higher for of life.

Wince said...

Named that "because the fruity bodies look like breasts."

What's not to lichen?

Ann Althouse said...

Fruiting bodies.

CJ said...

Read an interesting article about a new discovery about lichen - that it's actually a symbiosis of 3 species, not just 1 fungus and 1 bacteria. It's 2 fungus and 2 bacteria.

http://theconversation.com/lichens-may-be-a-symbiosis-of-three-organisms-a-new-order-of-fungus-named-63334

Who knew lichen could be interesting?

CJ said...

Sorry make that 2 fungus (1 a type of yeast) and 1 bacteria.

ALP said...

I had a lichen phase several years ago, as lichens were used back in the day for dyeing fiber. 98% of the lichens out there produce colors in a narrow range of warm earthy: tan, brown, babyshit yellow-brown. Still have huge jars of the sitting in my closet, waiting for the day I fall in love with the color babyshit yellow-brown.

Once you open your eyes to them - you see lichens are everywhere!

Wince said...

EDH said...
Named that "because the fruity bodies look like breasts."
What's not to lichen?

Ann Althouse said...
Fruiting bodies.


Hard to discern from the audio, but I stand corrected.

Maybe I was confused by the Jenner post?

sinz52 said...

Who knew lichen could be interesting?"

I find the cellular slime mold fascinating.

Because depending on conditions, it can act like a bunch of single-celled organisms, or aggregate and self-organize into an animal, and later into a plant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h8WOWEqP6o