Lichen, I have learned from internet sources, are "composite organisms" combining algae, capable of photosynthesis, and fungus...capable of sustaining a homeostatic environment for the algae (eg, optimal moisture.) Lichen subsist on water and dust. Mineral dust. I may be wrong but my quick reading of Wikipedia indicates that lichen aren't decomposers, they don't contribute to the decay of their host/support. So I think about the graffiti that leads to overpaintings that leads to the taking of pictures by me: the graffiti is photosynthetic/dynamic, the subsequent paint concealments establish a degree of visual homeostasis, the net effect is a visual embellishment (depending on your aesthetics.) So there's something lichen-like in the wall paintings. Maybe.
On some trees are zinc blue medallions of lichen, graphic and decorative. Others have a dusty look with specks and tints of hazy green - incipient lichen or algae free agents?
On these tinted trunks, green shades all sides of the tree, encircling north, south, east, west, from what I can tell. I could check with a compass to see if one side is most likely to be most green. After five years here I am still uncertain of the cardinal points - my sense of direction is baffled by the collision of places and shifting street plans of MyWy. We live in the irregular angles where the long-abandoned footpaths of native people and the tracks of elevated trains cross a grid laid out and lined in fireproof brick by 20th century developers.
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I wish I knew the names of the fungus I find, though. The shelf fungus on a stump, the short lived profusion among tree well grasses of mushrooms with a very edible look to them, and this firmly billowing cloud at the base of a locust near the library. It's the third iteration in as many years of impressive fungal presence at the foot of this tree.
