I suspect that everyone has at least one favorite word. I have quite a few, when I stop and think about it, and as I was looking through photo files a few nights ago, I was struck by a particular image, and the word attached to it. Though I have hundreds, if not thousands of favorite words (in at least 3 languages) I have to say that the oh-so-descriptive term: “epiphyte” ranks way up on the top of my list. As a word, it’s quite wonderful, and the things it describes are marvels as well. Epiphytes are plants that live on other plants or surfaces not commonly associated with plant growth. Lichens are among the worlds most numerous epiphytes. Unlike other, slightly-more-wimpy epiphytes, lichens aren’t particular about where they live, and like some extremophilic bacteria, they’ve been found in some of Earth’s most hostile environments. Indeed, only one species of extremophile, land dwelling bacteria has lichens beat, in terms of “most extreme” of terrestrial environments. Recent studies have unearthed the presence of a species of bacteria that…well…it eats nuclear radiation, and has been found thriving (recently) in the ruins of Chernobyl. I'm not sure if this is a recently-mutated species, or a rare extremophile that started growing in all of the nutritious radiation that gives Chernobyl its post-meltdown identity. Knowing Mother Nature, there will be lichens there as well...mutant lichens...quite possibly ambulatory mutant lichens (well...I'd put them there if I could!) When I took this photograph (last spring) I hadn’t yet learned of Chernobyl’s radiation-munching bacteria, nor was I fascinated by their industrial potential. I didn’t learn of them until summer, and I still don’t know very much about them. I’m not certain of the breeds of lichen captured in this image, but I know that there are at least two lichen species here. The flagrantly-green growth bits belong to a foliose lichen, while the more ashy-green, globby bits (with fungal spore cups) belong to a crustose lichen species. Apparently these two breeds don’t mind sharing the same tree. I suspect there’s more to say about lichens: they’re curiously complex and endlessly fascinating life forms, after all. For now, however, I’ll simply satisfy myself with posting a photo of lichen growth, and staring at all of the intriguing, pretty! lichen-ness now at home in this gallery. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week. Oh...and you might wanna zoom in to full size for this one.