The yellow parts of the roadside trees are covered with candle moss.

Have you ever seen something yellow on the trunks of trees along the road?

If you look closely, you can see that it has a moss-like shape. This is a living thing called candle moss, which apparently got its name from the fact that it was used to dye candles yellow.

Although the name has "moss" in it, it is not a plant but a fungus, that is, a member of the mold and mushroom family. Among them, it is a type of lichen, which lives in a symbiotic relationship with algae inside its body.

Most lichens are a few millimeters to a few centimeters in size, but when you look at them with a magnifying glass or the zoom function on your smartphone camera, you can see that they have some interesting shapes.

If you take a closer look, you might discover an unexpected world right around you!