"If we could get small
enough to thread through lichens
we'd find a playground."

Did you know that a lichen is actually two creatures living together in symbiosis? The algae produces sugars from sunlight that nourish the fungus, which in turn shelters the algae from heat and drying out. The lichen fungus may have been Earth's earliest farmers, figuring out how to cultivate its crop. This lichen is called "Xanthoria parietina," named for the fungus (not the algae).

If you were very very small, you could play inside a lichen. Single-celled algae would come greet you. You could hang from threads of the fungus like an acrobat. Painting inspired by a cross-section view of Xanthoria parietina lichen.