“Let’s get together” - Fungus & Alga We’ve taken a lichen to each other! Lichens are easy to miss. Who? Where? These quiet, colorful patches cling to rocks, trees, and fence posts almost everywhere, yet most people walk right past them. Rude. But there is so much to, well, lichen about them. We’re gonna use that pun a lot. Fun. Oh, lichen up. Did you know lichen is a relationship? It’s not complicated. Yep, a fungus and an alga (or sometimes a cyanobacterium) walk into a bar, wait, go together in one of nature’s most successful acts of teamwork. Let’s break it down. The fungus builds the body, a tough, protective hyphae that anchors the lichen and shields it from drying out. Inside that fungal scaffolding live the photosynthetic partners, churning sunlight into sugars that feed them both. In return, the fungus supplies water, minerals, and a safe home. It’s symbiosis at its finest: neither could survive in many places without the other. Oh, a bit needy, eh? But they can also split th...