Garden tip: What’s hanging from this tree?

Garden tip: What’s hanging from this tree?

Have you heard the one about the fungus meeting the algae? They took a “lichen” to each other! Biologically speaking, lichens are a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and algae. Recently, on a walk at Rush Creek Preserve near Novato, we saw lichen hanging from the oak trees. This was probably lace lichen, Ramalina menziesii, or old man’s beard, Usnea longissima. “Lichens are very sensitive to pollution,” said Sarah Jovan, a lichenologist wi…