Offering for Lichen

Lichens encrust as much as eight percent of the planet’s surface, an area larger than that covered by tropical rainforests. They clad rocks, trees, roofs, fences, cliffs, and the surface of deserts. Some are a drab camouflage. Some are lime green or electric yellow.

Lichens’ fondness for rock has changed the face of the planet and continues to do so, sometimes literally.

Lichens mine minerals from rock in a twofold process known as “weathering.” First, they physically break up surfaces by the force of their growth. Second, they deploy an arsenal of powerful acids and mineral-binding compounds to dissolve and digest the rock. Lichens’ ability to weather makes them a geological force, yet they do more than dissolve the physical features of the world. When lichens die and decompose, they give rise to the first soils in new ecosystems.

— From “Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Random House. 2020.