Are You a Fun Guy or Girl?

FundyBrian said:
Not a lot going on in this thread at this time of year. When I saw an extensive collection of lichens on the plastic siding of a friend’s house, and all surrounded by snow I had to make a photo for this thread.
View attachment 105281
In a previous discussion about lichens I mentioned that they don’t extract nutrients from the surface the attach to. Plastic provides no nutrients. So don’t worry about the lichens causing damage to trees or rocks. They will help accumulate dust from the air and gradually soil develops around them on horizontal surfaces. No danger of that on the plastic siding. This photo covers a width of about 15cm. The lichens were growing st nearly this density over a much wider area. But note, only on the north side of the house.
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They add some really cool texture and abstract shapes to an otherwise boring plastic exterior. :thumbs: I think it’d be so interesting if they covered the whole house.
 
Today I learnt that fungi can have thousands of sexes. The preferred term is mating types. The theory is, once a two sex system is evolved with cells at the two extremes it's difficult to then evolve any extra steps. So a large, stable egg cell and a small, unstable sperm cell is difficult to change when it's evolved.
Fungi, on the other hand, have sex cells that are almost indistinguishable unless you know what you're looking for which means they can all mostly mate with any of the same species.
Moss and lichen growing on the branches of a Hawthorn.
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rizole said:
Today I learnt that fungi can have thousands of sexes. The preferred term is mating types. The theory is, once a two sex system is evolved with cells at the two extremes it's difficult to then evolve any extra steps. So a large, stable egg cell and a small, unstable sperm cell is difficult to change when it's evolved.
Fungi, on the other hand, have sex cells that are almost indistinguishable unless you know what you're looking for which means they can all mostly mate with any of the same species.
Moss and lichen growing on the branches of a Hawthorn.
View attachment 106111
Click to expand...
Fascinating...
 
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