It's time to get to know our lichens better.
Naturalist Kem Luther can help in that department. He's written a book about lichens, mosses, fungi, and the other things that grow on the forest floor in his book Boundary Layer from Oregon State University Press.
Luther makes the comparison between the importance of plankton in the oceans and the importance of the plant layer in the forest. We get to know that layer more intimately with the author's visit.