Hello. This is Murakami from the Quality Control Department.
I'm a bit of a recluse and don't have much enthusiasm for going out, but recently I've started to enjoy walking outside a little.
The activity is to look for lichens while walking.
I've always walked around looking at wild plants, so what I'm doing may not seem much different to the outsider, but lichens have a unique charm to them.
* Some photos may send shivers down your spine. Please be careful if this bothers you.
Encounter with lichens
Do you know what lichens are?
In my case, the word comes up occasionally when I read books, so I had known about it for some time.
However, I didn't know the exact meaning, and based on the context and the kanji used, I imagined it might refer to a low-growing plant such as moss or fern.
That was my general understanding, but it was only a few months ago that I became interested in lichens.
Last year, I had the opportunity to visit a free school called TOEC in Tokushima Prefecture as part of a company training session.
The training itself was fun as I got to exercise for the first time in a while, but that night at dinner, a teacher who had been out returned and we happened to be sitting nearby. I learned that he had previously researched lichens, and as I myself have some interest in plants such as mosses and wild grasses, I decided to talk to him about it.
At that time, I didn't have a proper understanding of lichens, so looking back, I think I may have said some things that were a little off the mark.
Anyway, it was through that conversation that the word "lichen" quietly took root in me.
For a while after that I didn't really think about it and half forgot about it, but then in March of this year I went to the National Museum of Nature and Science to see an exhibition by Minakata Kumagusu (1867-1941), the scholar who collected a huge number of specimens of plants, slime molds, and other creatures.
At the same time, there was an exhibition on lichens, which piqued my interest as I remembered that it was something that someone from TOEC had talked about. Also, as the content was related to the Kumagusu exhibition, I decided to go and see it.
And there, at last, I learned what lichens are.
Until then, I had thought of lichens as a general term for plants such as moss that grow and cover the ground, but it turns out they are a completely different organism.
I was suddenly intrigued by something I had never paid much attention to before.
What are lichens?
You may not be familiar with the term lichen, but they are actually found all around us, and it is surprisingly easy to find small ones even in the city.
For example, have you ever noticed tree trunks turning yellowish or orange stains on old concrete on the side of the road?
These are also a type of lichen.
It looks like moss or dirt, but if you enlarge the photo of the concrete...
In Shibuya Ward. I think it is a member of the crustose lichen family, either Sclerotium nigricans or Sclerotium nigricans.
As you can see in the photo, something different from moss is visible. It is certainly not dirt.
Mosses (bryophytes) are a type of plant that contains chlorophyll and has leaves, but there are no leaves to be seen in the photo.
Instead, the enlarged photo shows a number of small particles. (I don't know enough about it to be able to say for sure yet.) The part that is darker orange inside than on the edge is probably the part that produces spores.
Spores. Lichens reproduce by spores (although they also reproduce by other means).
Moss also grows by spores, but it is not moss.
So what is it? Fungi.
Lichens are related to molds and mushrooms.
By the way, fungi are not plants, and are currently classified on an equal footing with animals and plants (kingdom fungi, kingdom animalia, kingdom planta). So mushrooms are not plants.
Lichens look quite different from molds or mushrooms, but their biggest difference is that they contain algae living inside their bodies and survive by consuming nutrients that algae create through photosynthesis.
But they don't just get the nutrients for free: in return they provide a home for the algae, which gives the algae more room to live.
Lichens and algae live in symbiosis.
As an aside, according to " The Lichens Next Door: Watching the Modest, Yet Mysterious Fungi That Are All Around Us " (Moriguchi Mitsuru), the everyday word "symbiosis" originally described the relationship between lichens and algae.
Lichens are very plain and small, but they are very deep...
Many lichens have the word "moss" in their name.
It may seem strange that it is called moss even though it is not, but apparently moss was originally written as "wood wool," which includes both moss plants and lichens, which are fungi, which is why lichens are still called "moss" today.
Although this is a rather rough explanation, I hope I have been able to give you at least a little information about lichens.
Searching for lichens
Now, once you're interested, you'll probably want to go and see it for yourself.
Lichens are sensitive to air pollution, and some species even serve as indicators for measuring air pollution. At first, I thought it would be difficult to find them in the city, but I was able to find them right next to me.
It was also growing in a place where the Shuto Expressway and Koshu Kaido run alongside each other, separated by a single building.
In Shibuya Ward. I think this is a foliose lichen, Kokagechii or Kofukimedaruchii (Kofukidzirinaria). I still have difficulty identifying this species.
Next is one that was growing at a temple in Chofu City. Different types can be seen depending on the location.
In the grounds of a temple in Chofu City. A member of the sessile lichen family, Phyllodes gracilis. The thin, black, linear parts are the organs that produce spores (spore-forming organs).
Lichens usually grow on rocks, concrete, tree trunks, etc. that have been there for many years, so they look for those types of places.
When observing, there are many things that cannot be seen with the naked eye, so I use the magnifying function of my smartphone. I also take photos with my smartphone and compare them with the "Urban Lichen Handbook" (Yoshito Omura) to find out what species they are.
I also have a magnifying glass, but I don't use it much in the city because I'm afraid I might look suspicious. Even just crouching down and taking a picture of the ground with my smartphone might look suspicious...
At first it was difficult to find and distinguish them, but recently I've finally begun to get the hang of it, ``Ah, this is lichen.''
(However, I haven't had anyone check whether my observations are correct, so there may still be many mistakes. I am currently looking for observation meetings that even amateurs can participate in.)
At first, I wasn't sure if something was a lichen, but I gradually realized that it was. I began to get an idea of what kind it was.
When you get to know someone, you start to feel affection for them.
When I look for lichens, even when looking at the same scenery I start to see things I couldn't see before, and it's like my perspective broadens, or like the number of layers increases.
Even in places I've been to dozens of times, if I suddenly look in an unusual spot, I'll find lichens growing there that I'd never noticed before. "Oh, so they were growing here too!"
Before I became interested in lichens, I probably wouldn't have even noticed anything growing there, even if it was right in my field of vision.
Perhaps this joy and excitement of making new discoveries is just the freshness of knowing that only just began at the entrance to the world of lichens, but it is something I hope to never lose.
At Hakusui Unsuikyo Gorge on Yakushima Island. The gray dots on the left are probably crusty lichens. The black dots on the right are unknown. The vertical black line in the center is the boundary between the two lichens.
I think it was probably my late grandfather's influence that led me to become interested in plants and flowers in the first place.
I think my grandfather was one of the people who knew the most about local plants, and when I was a child he would teach me about plants while we went for walks and picked bracken.
I don't collect specimens, nor do I study biology, but perhaps somewhere within me I still feel that maintaining an interest in such things is a way of not forgetting my grandfather.
I don't remember my grandfather telling me about lichens (even if he had, I probably wouldn't have been interested in them at the time...), but I'm sure there must be lichens growing around my parents' house in Kumamoto. I'm going to look for them the next time I go back.
I'm really excited at the thought that I may be able to see a world that was right next to me but that I didn't notice when I was young.
References:
Yoshito Omura 2016 " Urban Lichen Handbook " Bunichi Sogo Shuppan Mitsuru Moriguchi 2017 " Lichens in the Neighborhood: Watching the Unassuming and Mysterious Fungi That Are All Around Us " Yasaka Shobo
MURAKAMI Isao