Symbiosis:

Superlichen

Translating lessons from a microscopic natural partnership

by Jennifer Croft Orion Magazine February 28, 2023

UNTIL THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY, lichens were understood as individual organisms. It was then suggested, controversially, that a lichen was, in fact, a partnership. The division between the partners might have been invisible at first, but underneath a microscope, it was plain as day: a lichen was a pact between a fungus and an alga. Scientists began to speak of symbiosis: not survival of the fittest, but cooperation, reciprocity, partnership. Read More