#algae

"What the fuck?"

no, "Watch the Phacus".

Sea emeralds (Chaetomorpha coliformis), a type of green algae, on the coast of Wharekauri, Aotearoa

Smooth, wiggly algae going with the flow. If I look at them under a microscope, I'm sure they'll be even flowier and wigglier, right?

Pulchrocladia ferdinandii

Lacy coral lichen, Biblically-accurate-angel lichen (I made this one up)

Almost forgot that this is the whole point. This fruticose lichen is endemic to southern Australia, where it grows on dry, sandy or acidic soils. It grows in large cushions (15 cm tall, 75 cm wide) of rigid, perforate pseudopodetia. It is whitish-cream to yellowish in color, and isn't known to produce apothecia, but produces globose pycnidia on the irregularly-branching, tips of the pseudopodetia. The official description of this lichen refers to it as "horny," which I am choosing to believe refers to the horn-like structure of the thallus, not to its desire to jump some bones. But if I am mistaken, go off, queen, you can get it. P. ferdinandii looks similar to sister-species P. retipora, but is overall larger, and prefers dryer habitats than the latter. And before you ask no, we don't know why it looks like this, so let's just appreciate that it does and that we are blessed to be able to see it.

images: source

ID credit: Taqman2023 on 小红书