Photographed yesterday. Two? Sorts of lichen in Penkhull. I know it’s hard for them to grow in polluted air and sometimes you only get a few types growing. But these look quite well grown. I remember some names of them but I asked my hubby who used to study them and he said they are parmelia saxatalis, and xanthoria paretina. The yellow is Xanthoria, from Xanthos apparently meaning yellow in Greek. They are a combination (symbiosis) of fungus and algae. The fungus holds the water and traps nutrients and the algae photo synthesises and creates oxygen.
I do think they look like miniature corals. I could imagine them in a shallow sea. Like so many things looking similar but on different scales…
Mallaband-Brown 
These are beautiful. They also remind me of photos of the earth from outer space! X
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Exactly, they look like islands!
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It’s really interesting that they remind you of corals since they are a fungus which provides a home for an algae and the algae feeds sugar to the fungus. In corals it is a primitive animal which provides a home for an algae and the algae again provides sugars!!!
Awesome photos!
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I guess there shape is similar because they have similar mechanisms…. Convergent evolution?
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Yes – that makes a lot of sense!
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😊
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