TRANSCRIPT:
Hello this is Dr. Tom Mullikin with SCDNR for Into the Wild.
Walk through a South Carolina forest and look closely at the bark of an old tree. You may see patches of green, gray, yellow, or orange that seem almost painted onto the surface.
Those are lichens, and they are much more than decoration. A lichen is a partnership between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner, such as an alga or cyanobacterium. Together, they can live in places where few other organisms could survive.
Lichens take in much of what they need from the air and rain. Because of that, some species are sensitive to changes in air quality, making them useful to scientists studying environmental conditions.
They also help break down surfaces and contribute to the slow formation of soil. Something that looks like a simple patch on a tree can actually be a tiny ecosystem at work.
So the next time you are Into the Wild, look a little closer. The forest has stories written on its bark, and sometimes the smallest ones tell us the most about the world around us.