Lichens grow throughout Missouri and are a major contributor to the mosaic of colors in our natural landscape. They grow on all types of rocks and trees in a variety of habitats, and they are an important component of healthy habitats. Lichen grasshoppers are almost impossible to find when resting on patches of boulder lichen. Lichens often are lumped with mosses or other small plants, although they have little in common except size and habitat because lichens have no roots, stems or leaves. Unlike most animals and leafy plants, a lichen is a fusion of two unrelated organisms.
Every lichen is a combination of a fungus and algae or algaelike bacteria.
Bread mold, morel mushrooms or the toadstools that sometime grow in our lawns are some familiar fungi. Algae are most familiar to us as the green scum on ponds and other slow-flowing waters. The fungi and algae in lichens are usually different types from their free living relatives. While almost every lichen species has a unique fungus component, we often see the same species of algae in more than one type of lichen. A lichen looks and behaves differently than either of its components do independently.