Lichen: The Mysterious Love Child of Fungi and Algae

Go to www.squarespace... to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
A useful principle in the story of life is that you should never underestimate algae or cyanobacteria. They’ll just always manage to surprise you, and more importantly, to remind you that everything you have comes down, eventually, to them.
Shop The Microcosmos:
www.microcosmo...
Follow Journey to the Microcosmos:
Twitter: / journeytomicro
Facebook: / journeytomicro
Support the Microcosmos:
/ journeytomicro
More from Jam’s Germs:
Instagram: / jam_and_germs
KZbin: / @jamsgerms
Hosted by Hank Green:
Twitter: / hankgreen
KZbin: / vlogbrothers
Music by Andrew Huang:
/ andrewhuang
Journey to the Microcosmos is a Complexly production.
Find out more at www.complexly.com
Stock video from:
www.gettyimage...
www.gettyimage...
www.gettyimage...
www.gettyimage...
www.gettyimage...
commons.wikime...
commons.wikime...
SOURCES:
www.niehs.nih....
www.livescienc...
royalsociety.o...
www.fs.usda.go...
www.fs.usda.go...
www.livescienc...
ohioplants.org...
journals.asm.o...\_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr\_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr\_dat=cr\_pub%20%200pubmed
www.fs.usda.go...
www.researchga...\_Simon\_Schwendener\_1829-1919\_and\_the\_Dual\_Hypothesis\_of\_Lichens
www.nature.com...
microbialcellf...
www.science.or...
This video has been dubbed using an artificial voice via aloud.area120.... to increase accessibility. You can change the audio track language in the Settings menu.

[@journeytomicro]

Go to www.squarespace.com/microcosmos to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[@noimnotakpoppfpsheacy2526]

PURR SIS 🧜🏿‍♀️

[@caiden-_-]

Can you do a video on deadly amoebas, how they kill, and how they enter the human bodies. The two main ones I'm wondering about is the brain eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri and balamuthia mandrillaris which I heard can enter from a cut like on the hand if someone is messing with dirt and I dig a good bit and use my hands to pull things out of the ground covered in dirt

[@TheO5Council]

I think it would be interesting if we can make a mycelium/ lichen supercomputer which would self-assemble into a working biological computer we already can create biological lasers and store digital information in the Genome of living organisms I think we might be able to Frankenstein some kind of bio Quantum bit

[@arnautarnautsen2564]

I actually read that recent research proves that a lichen always has one species of alga and *two* species of fungi. I was surprised nobody noticed in, you know, some 200 years, but I can't see it in these amazing images, either.

[@willowarkan2263]

Same, that was covered in my biodiversity of plants course, which includes fungi for "historical reasons". We were taught that the secondary fungal symbiont may be the catalyst for the morphological expression of the lichen, so if it's scaly or leafy, etc.

[@Kammerliteratur]

yes, there are yeasts in lichen, too. but at the moment, nobody knows which role they play or if they are just commensals.

[@borttorbbq2556]

One algae 2 fungi and like 3 bacteria

[@csn583]

For the 12 days of symbiosis, my lichen gave to me...

[@rEGGinaldYolkerston-qp9px]

@@csn583 good thread; would read again. Good job everyone!

[@timothygreer188]

I used to teach the 5th-grade science class how Alice Algae met Freddie Fungus and they took a Lichen to each other. Thanks to recent studies I can't do that anymore without explaining what a throuple is

[@LilBrownieD]

😅😅

[@weldonanderson5124]

Theodore Throuple?

[@Crowborn]

the polycule!!!!!

[@blackflare]

maybe lichen is kind of like what life was on earth before it got more complex. Similar to how we eventually somehow captured mitochondria and integrated it, there was probably a time when our ancestor organisms were still just symbiotically coming togther.

[@djinnisequoia]

That's a viable theory. I've seen it postulated that our internal organs may have started out as symbiotic colonies

[@jamesbugbee9026]

The colon as an intelligent worm (fill it w/ barium & C what happens)

[@catpoke9557]

​@@djinnisequoia that is kind of gross to think about

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

​@@jamesbugbee9026 no, much simpler internals than that. We got mitochondria that way, after all.

[@zJoriz]

Funny, I was thinking about lichen recently. Haven't washed my car in a while and there's something reddish growing on the roof. Was thinking of sending samples of it to James, if he's interested

[@optinoptimist]

beautiful video!! thank you again! it left me with some thoughts, and i'll go ahead and share them: it seems that opposition is easy to spot because it can feel disruptive and scary, but more broadly, everything is so cooperative and connected that things like opposition and individuality just stand out so starkly against the contrast, which makes those things feel like the more prevailing trends; however, when all things are considered, the level of internal and external cooperation is on an entirely different scale. much of that which feels like opposition is simply interactions and building blocks that are a part of a larger scale cooperation. it's only when things of the same scale cooperate that we even call it cooperation, which is a mistake. love yall out there, stay up!!!

[@PhilipMurphyExtra]

Another great episode, Thank you.

[@TheBullethead]

So here's the question hanging unanswered over this episode.... Do lichens reproduce other lichens or is each lichen a chance meeting of strangers?

[@Corn0nTheCobb]

Does Hank Green have to be the host of every science channel on KZbin? I can't seem to get away from him! He almost had me fooled with his more calm-than-usual tone here, but the credits don't lie!

[@philipweilguni2571]

Great Video as always 😁 Tiny language PSA though: „Sch“ as in Schwendener is pronounced the same as „sh“ in the word shake. Cheers from Austria 🇦🇹

[@katehorn7530]

I taught a lichen themed summer camp recently haha! Lichen is very cool and I'm happy to see it get the recognition it deserves

[@marthanewsome6375]

I cultivated as a novice on an artifical rock wall in a paludarium, just from a pinch of lichen I collected.

[@Infamous159]

@6:00 the little things vibrating whatever that molecule was (looks like just a big drop of water) until it popped and realizing it didnt actually pop and his friend behind him trying to push him into the little gap he cant fit was amazing. It looked like it was vibrating that molecule so hard it was creating a sonic pressure wave between it and the molecule. Then it popped and became more circular and it started getting pushed by his buddies and started trying to create the wave again to get through. I wonder if he ever made it? lol

[@Infamous159]

likewise at 8:08 the little rod that comes into view just below 630X text and disappears once it meets something vibrating was equally interesting. What was that? Didn't look like bacteria

[@Pyro-et9vs]

My mycology professor had this video on one of his lecture slides!

[@sentientflower7891]

Always beautiful videos!

[@DSAK55]

Dayum! way better than expected

[@polychoron]

I want to see the big leafy lichen growing on a sloth, that would look so cool, like someone from a video game.

[@gilessmedley619]

I was taught the symbiosis of lichen as the algae are the phytobiont (not photobiont) & the fungi the mycobiont

[@nyuh]

no way...,,, lichen are the og symbiosises i did not know that. that is so cool

[@amicaaranearum]

“You see, just as the earth lichen is composed of an algae and a fungus, the quantum variety is also comped of two separated parts: an attractive, algae-based id and a ravenous, fungus-based ego that stores the stolen souls - I mean, life forces. Now, here’s the weird part: the ego and the id are connected not physically, like decent, God-fearing earth lichens, but by quantum entanglement.”

[@Pyro-et9vs]

What are you talking about?

[@Guydude777]

Very interesting!

[@HikarusVibrator]

Lichen is like Jesus. When I found Lichen I saw it everywhere. It filled my heart, and guided my thoughts. The world will never be the same again.

[@kingtoad2234]

I have always loved lichen and fungi

[@Memry-Man]

Yeah, we're much closer the the beginning than the ending of understanding

[@nelsoncabrera6464]

7:38 Wow, beautiful!

[@josieschultz4241]

shoutout to the great oxidization effect

[@edh2246]

I’m looking for a poster illustration of small measurements down to the atomic level. Can someone please point me? Thanks.

[@tanyalake9152]

Lichen is inside my body, right now, through a certain (American) company/brand that uses safe, organic, marine/plant, vegan/vegetarian based ingredients! I have a certain surgery, this Friday, and thought I was going to get my second bottle of vitamin D3 (plant based from lichen) for next day delivery a week ago. An hour and a half, ago, one of my neighbors knocked on my door and she told me that she put my package in front of my door and went upstairs to her apartment. I couldn't wait to open and use these supplements! I came across this certain brand/company, on Amazon, a year ago. Their vitamin D3 was/is the first organic/vegan vitamins I bought from them. A few weeks, maybe a month later, I went to a hospital to check my vitamin d levels and I couldn't believe how potent these were/are. Before that, my brain and body was in so much pain because of lack of vitamins, especially/mostly lack of vitamin D3. I wished I knew about this specific brand/company years ago. Lichen also helps with bone, teeth, and immune health benefits!

[@MrPyriusfire]

Please please please do a deep dive on myxomycetes (slime mold) it’s not a fungus or a plant. It has a part of its life cycle where the spore’s it drops for reproduction land in water they grow flagella and start hunting bacteria

[@ferretyluv]

You forgot to mention the biggest thing we need to thank Cyanobacteria for is our mitochondria.

[@hydroids]

I wonder what these funjeye and aljee he keeps mentioning are

[@therongjr]

Amīr Al-Jī (أمير الجي in the original Arabic) was the person who discovered that lichens are really cool.

[@rockspyder3970]

Lichen is on land the counterpart of what coral is in the sea

[@BenjaminRonlund]

You really have to wonder just how many "crazy" theories have been dismissed, simply because of the closed minded thinking we're all responsible for.

[@wssometimesavowel3639]

This symbiosis reminds me of "multicellular life". 😂

[@brentstorck3589]

We need our gut bacteria. Are we considered composite organisms like the lichen?

[@nadapenny8592]

.....if I let ringworm take over my skin can I be a dual organism too??? Fungus armor sounds great

[@Dogpool]

I’m really lichen this video

[@user-spino]

A PP at 3:25

[@cjc.1498]

I really thought this said Dual Organism without the ni- 👀

[@ge2623]

I always thought the love child of Fungi and Algae was Lindsay Graham.

[@victorcercasin]

Ohh, ORGANISM. It says dual ORGANISM. Ok, I'll go now

[@ashnur]

6:30 - "How could they know?" goes the rhetorical question, but it's so incredibly ignorant and idiotic, I have to answer: they didn't have to know the answer to know the possibility of the answer. Everything is possible, the less you know the more things are possible not less. If someone comes with a novel idea, the argument that "we don't know that you are correct because we don't know it, therfor you are not correct and we are doing science" is the worst kind of tautology.

[@Rheologist]

Lichen subscribe!

[@amschubert1]

🎉😂🎉😂😂VT.

[@gibbogle]

"Al ghee", not "al gee".

[@Lordwacu]

Sch in german is like sh in english dont get how you could think of pronouncing it Swendener if you at least tried

[@Matt-bg3bd]

I read that as dual orgasm. This is boring.

[@jorispattyn9690]

Seriously?? Serious scientists as you ought to know that algae, cyanobacteria and lichen are known, since some time, not being enough to create the lichens we see. There are yeaststrains involved, and I think that ought to have been said in this episode. It has been suggested that the problem of cultivating lichen in lab, is due to the omitting of the yeasts involved.

[@fuckYTIDontWantToUseMyRealName]

This is my new favorite weird bullshit conspiracy theory.

[@csn583]

Yeast are fungi, and fungi are mentioned throughout. The specific yeast angle would be interesting but there's always another video to make. Also you seem to be conflating "science communicator" and "scientist", though they presumably have scientists on staff.

[@alexjackson1106]

What if you have a Non-dualistic spiritual perspective on life…. how. does. dis. work. hope someone gets my joke

[@cineblazer]

You know, I've really started to take a lichen to this channel. The writing is excellent and Hank is such a fungi!

[@andrearupe8094]

AaaaaaaaaaaaAAA

[@williek08472]

Booooooooo

[@KonradvonHotzendorf]

Nice 😂👍

[@nadapenny8592]

I hate how good this is.

[@ronaldmorgan7632]

And Al, gee, he's so green with envy.

[@RJFerret]

I remember a chance encounter at a park with a fellow sitting on a rock looking over lichen. "Nice day, what are you looking at?" He told me about the symbiosis of lichen. I'd wondered since how integrated the cells were, thanks for showing such!

[@anonhere4021]

That exchange sounds absolutely magical

[@anonhere4021]

That exchange sounds absolutely magical

[@YunxiaoChu]

.

[@gastonmarian7261]

Our perspective on the world is always limited by the language culture uses to describe it. It's like Godel's incompleteness theorem, there will always be true things about the world that stand apart from language, the framework we use to explain it to ourselves. It's the task of poets and visionaries to create new models, pushing the language of understanding right up to the boundary of what's speakable

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

That's known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (or linguistic relativity). Note that the strong version of that (linguistic determinism) is generally rejected by both linguists and psychologists.

[@gastonmarian7261]

The fascists of the world have long known how to use this for evil. Define your opponents as "untermensch", under men, literally sub-human, and suddenly lots of reasonable people think it's okay to genocide a population, rather than having compassion for their fellow human beings. Within your own experience of reality, you can approach the unspeakable much nearer. As espoused by philosopher and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, we can at any time reengage with the archaic techniques of shamanism, partaking of plant medicines like mushrooms or ayahuasca to shed all conventions of language. By stepping outside of culture, we get a new perspective on reality and are invited to come up with linguistic models for things no one has seen before and no one will ever see again. On any weekend afternoon, each of us could be our own Magellan, sailing the seas of our own internal landscapes, finding new shores. When we prone the boundaries of our own humanness, engage directly with our connection to the Other, that which is truly alien and has only us as its connection point to the mundane plane, we find how profound and ecstatic our existence on this planet can be. "I lean over meaning's edge, and feel the dizziness of the things unsaid." Because there are things close to the surface that are truly unsayable, showing us through personal, direct experience how literally our language limits us. Just as being wrapped in a body of flesh and blood opens one set of possibilities and limitations to us, culture too wraps us in another layer that filters what's accessible in our sphere. Fortunately, culture can evolve quicker than biology, and we are free at any moment to shed it in search of more fundamental truths.

[@jamesbugbee9026]

Infinity vs (#) vocabulary

[@k1m6a11]

ummm, wut?

[@Spo8]

The level of quality this channel brings to every single video is just staggering.

[@DirtyDerg]

Zoomers be like "Wow a channel with no filler!!!" Everyone else "This is just how the internet used to be."

[@uncroppedsoop]

​​@@DirtyDerg Zoomers? we grew up alongside the internet, dude. we _saw_ it go from that to what it is now as we ourselves aged. you're thinking Gen A, cause the oldest Zoomers are almost 30 now

[@DenUil]

What I don't yet understand is how a lichen is formed. Is it a fungus that meets an algae and in a kind off wedding for the lichen, or is the lichen something that produces spores that grow new lichen?

[@bjornbesbitt6446]

Both of your guesses are right! An algae and a fungus can collide in nature and eventually grow together to form a lichen. A mature lichen can also reproduce by releasing packets of algal pores and hyphae into the air, or growing fragile bits of itself outward, that break off and become their own organism

[@DenUil]

@@bjornbesbitt6446 thanks!

[@andrewgraves4026]

The sexual part of lichen reproduction often gets glossed over. Where and how do separate lichen individuals combine DNA? Do the alga and fungus make separate packages of DNA which … combine, like two couples, in spore production?

[@bjornbesbitt6446]

@@andrewgraves4026 it's a little unusual and I don't 100% understand it myself as I am still a student. But basically, when a lichen sexually reproduces, it's only the fungal component that releases any genetic material. The fungus releases spores into the environment, and the spores must wait until they have encountered the appropriate algae or cyanobacteria. Since this method relies so much on that chance meeting, it is not as effective as asexual reproduction.

[@andrewgraves4026]

@@bjornbesbitt6446 thanks! Great job.

[@RichardLaurence]

I remember when my local council in England proudly announced that someone had discovered a new type of lichen on a pavement. Sadly, during analysis it was noticed that the ‘lichen’ smelled faintly of mint and was actually chewing gum!

[@SirUncleDolan]

Just goes to show, it's good to independently confirm before sharing with the rest of the class! 🤭 I feel bad for the person who thought they found it though, hopefully it was just a student or something

[@RichardLaurence]

@@SirUncleDolan I don’t think anyone got too much grief - it was treated in a light-hearted way!

[@RADCOMJ1]

Maybe because it was wriggleys😉

[@YunxiaoChu]

Any articles about this?

[@daxbjornstad-northern1495]

I’m just reading through the comments, and this channel has the sweetest fan base

[@spiderdude2099]

Because they can both photosynthesize and break down minerals for food, lichens are one of the first lifeforms to recolonize after disasters like forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Scientists use the appearance of lichens as an indicator that an ecological area is recovering

[@Z3roX-56k]

"We don't know the tings we don't know". Equally profound and disturbing at the same time.

[@glossaria2]

I developed (ha!) a love affair with lichen when I got a camera with a microscope setting, that lets me take incredibly zoomed-in photos at extremely close range. I discovered an entire garden of lichen growing atop one of the old wooden fence posts of my mom's garden. The closer you get, the stranger and more beautiful they are. And of course, they also frequently play host to my OTHER favorite microorganism, the tardigrade!

[@osmia]

What about yeast? Seems to me that I remember hearing about a lichen and that had algae, fungus, and yeast

[@Kammerliteratur]

that's true, but the role of the yeast is not yet understood.

[@csn583]

Yeast is also fungi FWIW.

[@Kammerliteratur]

@@csn583 yes.

[@synoptic4753]

Yeast to ferment Human bodies

[@billfarley9015]

I wonder to what extent lichens prepared the early Earth for green plants and animals, adding oxygen to the air and breaking down rocks.

[@AmandaComeauCreates]

I believe it's already well theorized that lichen might've been the first and most successful land organisms but I saw it in a video awhile back.

[@yam-ingtonjr7606]

your narritives and visuals give me a sense of peace while fueling my curiosity in a way no other channel has been able to achieve. i come here to relax and learn about little tiny guys, all while wearing my cozy microcosm crewneck which goes harder than any other sweater i own

[@mateusnicolinibezerra9757]

If they became a single organism fully, would they create a whole new Kingdom or even Domain? :o

[@GeoffryGifari]

how does lichen fall under taxonomy? how does it reproduce if it needs both algae and fungi? which fungi and which algae can combine as a lichen? so many questions...

[@muslalah5567]

I’m lichen this channel! So great. Keep up the good work!

[@renzbongers337]

The photos were amazing! You should make posters of them!

[@pgknippel]

If this is who I think it is narrating, thank you SO much for a) slowing the narration down and b) laying off all that redundant text. Much more relaxing this way…thanks again, excellent content as per usual.

[@adamlaceky8127]

Several years ago, it was discovered that lichen have at least three species: two algae or cyanobacteria, and a fungus.

[@markromanoscience4387]

What did the algae say to fungus about their symbiotic relationship? . . . I'm LICHEN it!

[@CrackDavidson1]

Man just watched scishow before this video and realized man that voice sounds familiar. Been watching these for a while, but never made the connection. :D

[@kingsrook9866]

lichen subscribe Sorry, not sorry

[@NovaGirl8]

algae what you did there

[@shellh929]

Who came straight from Hank's vlogbrothers video? 🙋🏼‍♀️

[@TheRogueWolf]

I'm watching this video and I'm lichen what I see.

[@anshulsharma4754]

That's the voice of Mr Tom Hank from PBS Sci-Show! Isn't it??

[@jonathanleonard1152]

Lichen, how they evolved and what they are made of, have analogy to religion also. There is “us”, each of us is individual and can function and at times reproduce with others of our kind. And there are those in our heads, those who help or harm us. The help or harm is at times dependent on what we are willing to put up with as voices in our heads. These voices can get around and function but they can not reproduce. Those voices can help us to do good or bad.

[@larkivisto]

Did a double take when I saw the thumbnail, read it as "dual orgasm" lol

[@riverAmazonNZ]

When you say the holdfast is like a peg, do you mean a wooden peg as in a straight rod, a wooden peg for a clothesline, a divided rod, or a clothes peg that pinches with a spring and opens and shuts ?

[@TheJrerick]

Is the narrator the dude from Sci show?

[@isabellabihy8631]

Mycobiont and photobiont: They took a likin' to each other.

[@CharGC123]

If there is lichen growing on my feet, does that mean I need to move more? 🤣

[@jonyeawright]

Al Gee met Fun Gus met and took a lichen to each other.

[@m5a1stuart83]

So this means the fungus are the PMC and Bodyguard of Algae. Impressive.

[@nichole_null]

I’m lichen this content!

[@Slattery777]

Great episode like always

[@patriciadonovan4829]

I love lichen, as an amateur, but I freaked out with delight when I found out about the new (new to humans) double fungi twist. I wonder how many other lifeforms will be found to be the result of living things combing with one or more other living things.

[@complex314i]

The ultimate evolution of the lichen is surely the lichen trees of the Tentacled Forest, the great coniferous rainforest stretching across 35 hundred of miles of Northwest Novopangea.

[@Mephistopholies]

Good show!

[@FloozieOne]

Thanks for this. Watching many many nature videos I have heard lichens mentioned many times as a unique life-form made up of two others, but this is the first time I have found out why and what the processes are for their interactions. You have expanded my world another notch and I will never walk by a lichen again without looking and marveling at it.

[@houstongalloway6380]

I agree. I've watched many "documentaries" on Lichen and this one is great. Short and full of knowledge, and pictures.

[@ForestFire369]

I wake & baked this morning, and this is exactly how I wanted to spend my Easter Monday 😂 I love you, Hank, thank you so much for this show ❤

[@csn583]

Careful, only you can prevent...

[@ChrisUnltdTV]

High right now and my mind is blown watching this 😂

[@codemonkeyslikeme]

Smoke dat green lichens 🔥

[@TorQueMoD]

The part around 7:58 where you say "The way we talk about science makes it feel like we're done" is one of the best lines I've ever heard! Great video!

[@kayleighgroenendal8473]

I could listen to Hank speak quietly and closely into a microphone all day 😂

[@dreamsprayanimation]

I thought Cyanobacteria wasn't algae at all since it's a prokaryote and all algae is eukaryotic.

[@dilaudid1]

You are correct. When they named blue-green algae many years ago, they never knew about prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

[@ClipsNSnips]

You were doing SOOOO GREAT with your pronuciations..... until you said "fun-jai" 🤦

[@gaeshows1938]

Fun guy and al gore Iconic duo

[@Boogie_the_cat]

And remember to give a "thumbs up" if you're lichen this video. 😮

[@MrEiht]

It is a bit sad that you can't sound like a WWF madman when telling these beautiful stories...

[@erictaylor5462]

If I made a combination of algae and fungus into the shape of the letter M, would I have lichen like N?

[@rutufn0596]

It's a sad thing that lichens are impacted by aerial pollutions and are diseapering from urban centers.

[@AmandaComeauCreates]

Considering how successful they've been that's terrifying. If they can't survive how can we :s

[@murielvaillancourt3855]

@@AmandaComeauCreates i am old and i think now that we are the Earth cancer and we need to disappear in this 6th mass extinction. We destroyed all our beautiful home and were unable to choice the right turn in time. Our big brain has nothing to do with true intelligence and understanding nor wisdom. It’s hard to wrap this idea in our mind but it’s now for me an evidence. We need to exit to save our Little Blue Pale Dot.

[@komolkovathana8568]

Symbiosis : (1) Chloroplast inside trees' leafs.?!? (2) Mitochondria inside Animals' Cells.!!

[@codemonkeyslikeme]

Ahh yes, lycans are the results of symbYosis of between a human and a wulf