#turning into an entirely different lifeform and then making the sperm swim through the elements to get coochie

[botanyshitposts]

do u think lichen could/would evolve in the future to make a sort of like sexually reproduced package seed-like thing with all parties involved?

i mean, they kind of already do that??? it’s in the specific cases of the two main vegetative forms that do, though. i know ive talked about this before, but we don’t quite understand lichen sex yet, although we do know a fews ‘lichen reproduction’ methods:

to unpack this graphic a little (as we understand it right now): the ‘vegetative’ category is the closest you’re gonna get to ‘thing that can grow into a full lichen with all the symbionts intact’, the catch being that it’ll produce a perfect clone of the mother lichen; these are literally just ways the lichen can break off parts of itself in different sizes to start growing other places. the ‘asexual’ category refers to the fungal symbiont making clone spores of itself; these can develop into lichens in the right conditions, just like any other potentially lichenized species, but they also can land and just...form the non-lichenized version of the fungal symbiont. likewise, the sexual category is literally just the fungal symbiont having sex, which produces fungal spores with, again, the potential to become lichens but equal chances to just grow into a new fungus. 

the kind of propagule that you’re describing are produced by Soredia, under the vegetative category in this graphic. the propagules produced by soredia are probably the closest possible thing to the ‘little seed package’ you’re describing. in that case, the lichen forms a little pocket in the thallus where the upper cortex exposes the algal/fungus layer underneath. the result looks kind of powdery up close/under a microscope, and it’s full of propagules that get dispersed by wind/rain/whatever. this is a good illustration of one:

note also that this illustration mentions both fungal hyphe and algae, but nothing else that’s been recently discovered as being part these weird soups (see: a second fungus and a yeast, which seem to be consistently part of some lichens more so than others. bacteria can also colonize lichens, which we’ve known for a long time due to the specific organs they form in the thallus, but to my knowledge those just come from the environment). i suppose it can be assumed that soredia propagules have literally everything packaged together, including any yeasts or second fungi or whatever else is in there, but of course we’re still trying to figure out like, even how to find that, and the presences of more symbionts have only been proven in a couple families so far, etc etc, but the bottom line is that The Lads know what they’re doing and we have no idea what they’re doing. 

in terms of evolution potentially developing seeds...as you can see from the above, the propagules are pretty exposed and don’t have a seed coat, and the fungal spores not pictured aren’t much better. 

i’m not gonna go into full seed evolution here except i am because i have a test over this tomorrow, but the important thing to remember is that seeds evolved from spores as a consequence of the evolving plant reproductive system, as the soon-to-be-seed-plant evolutionary line realized that making fewer offspring with more protection and food and all that yielded equal or higher rates of survival then just...making as many spores as they could with the hope a few would get fertilized by chance and survive. turns out folding up your (at this point female, ovule-producing) fertile leaves, and therefore protecting the organs producing as many spores as you can from the elements, allows fewer spores to be carried away by wind and rain undeveloped and also has the fancy side effect of being able to filter which pollen you get pollinated by, and you dont have to make as many offspring...the most popular hypothesis is that it all went downhill from there: 

and that turned into gymnosperms (plants with cones), and then...well, you know. 

but you see, the fucked up thing is that lichens are as old as green algae on the banks of the primordial ooze. lichens were around before plants even STARTED to make leaves. as soon as there were fungi and algae together on this earth, they were not only forming symbiotic associations but were making soups. we have fossil evidence of this. now, the condition of how lichens evolve is kind of weird, since becoming a lichen is less of like, a species and more of a potential adaptation that multiple species have should they end up in the same small area together, but what i’m pulling away from that is that unless some crazy shit happens, lichens seem perfectly happy with......whatever this is. whatever that is. if the thalli of some obscure lichen species starts folding up around the fungal sexual organs, thus inventing the world’s first fungus carpels, we’ll know we have a problem and i will be afraid