Basically the title. I’ve been looking around for sources on how to just observe the free photobiont from a sample, but all papers point towards cultivation. I don’t have an autoclave in order to prepare media so I don’t see myself cultivating the algae in the near future, but I’d really like to be able to identify the lichens in my area. Is there a workaround or are cultures strictly needed?
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aren’t lichens usually identified based on the mycobiont (the fungus)? maybe the photobiont gives clues about the lichen or maybe it’s interesting to identify the photobiont itself, but generally you should be able to identify the mycobiont itself without identifying the photobiont, right?
i don’t know about observing the photobiont and i don’t have a microscope to try, but it seems like they should be able to be physically separated from the fungus and viewed under a microscope. i would guess that it should be possible to find photobiont cells floating around if you just put the right bit of lichen in a bit of water. whether it’s easy to find those cells without cultivating, i’m not sure though.
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You usually don’t need to ID the phycobiont to identify the lichen. When this trait is used, you’re usually distinguishing green algae (= green lichens, at least when wet) from cyanobacteria (blue-greens, usually = gray or brown lichens). The key I usually use has phycobionts in the 2nd lead, but that’s color question disguised as a phycobiont question. If you run into a key that has a phycobiont question, you can always go both ways and see what seems to work. I have to do this far too often when keying both plants and lichens. It helps to keep small post-it notes on hand to mark where you weren’t confident because you’ll probably have to go back to that lead and try the other way. Marking with a pencil can become a problem because you want to flag too many leads – and don’t even think of using a pen. When you get a result, compare your lichen to photos as a check.
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Thanks for the workaround! Problem was, the only key that goes in detail for my area dates from the 80s and ‘requires’ observation of the phycobiont, down to genera (Palmella/Chroococcum/Nostoc…). I will try to rehydrate my samples to distinguish and properly ID them.
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Ick. That’s not good. Best of luck!
Sometimes microscopy can be enough to determine a photobiont genera depending on the structure/type of lichen.
Maybe look into microscopy techniques to try to separate out photobionts from the mycobiont.