F. Diseases of Lichens
a. Caused by Parasitism. Zopf[964] has stated that of all plants, lichens are the most subject to disease, reckoning as diseases all the instances of parasitism by fungi or by other lichens. There are however only rare instances in which total destruction or indeed any permanent harm to the host is the result of such parasitism. At worst the trouble is localized and does not affect the organism as a whole. Some of these cases have been already noted under antagonistic symbiosis or parasymbiosis. Several instances have however been recorded where real injury has been caused by the penetration of some undetermined fungus mycelium. Zukal[965] records two such observed by him in Parmelia encausta and Physcia villosa: the thallus of the former was dwarfed and deformed by the presence of the alien mycelium, the latter was excited to abnormal proliferation.
b. Caused by crowding. Lichens suffer frequently from being overgrown by other lichens; they may also be crowded out by other plants. My attention was called by Mr P. Thompson to a burnt plot of ground in Epping Forest, which, after the fire, had been colonized by Peltigera spuria. In the course of a few years, other vegetation had followed, depriving the lichen of space and light and gradually driving it out. When last examined only a few miserable specimens remained, and these were reduced in vitality by an attack of the lichen parasite Illosporium carneum.
c. Caused by adverse conditions. Zukal considers as pathological, at least in origin, the cracking of the thallus so frequent in crustaceous lichens as well as in the more highly developed forms. As the cracks are beneficial in the aeration of the plant, they can hardly be regarded as symptoms of a diseased condition. The more evident ringed breaks in the cortex of Usneae, due probably to wind action, have more reason to be so regarded; they are most pronounced in Usnea articulata, where the portions bounded by the rings are contracted and swollen, and a hollow space is formed between the cortex and the central axis. The swellings that are produced on lichen thalli, such as those of Umbilicaria and some species of Gyrophora, due to intercalary growth are normal to the plant, though occasionally the swollen weaker portions may become ruptured and the cortex be thrown off. As pathological also must be regarded the loss of cortex sometimes occasioned by excessive soredial formation at the margins of the lobes: the upper cortex may be rolled back and eventually torn away; the gonidial layer is exposed and transformed into soredia which are swept away by the wind and rain, till finally only traces of the lower cortex are left.
Zukal[966] has instanced, as a case of diseased condition observed by him, the undue thickening of the cortex in Pertusaria communis whereby the formation of the fruiting bodies is inhibited and even vegetative development is rendered impossible. There arrives finally a stage when splitting takes place and the whole thallus breaks down and disappears. As a rule however there need be no limit to the age of the lichen plant. There is no vital point or area in the thallus; injury of one part leaves the rest unhurt, and any fragment in growing condition, if it combines both symbionts, can carry on the life of the plant, the constant renewal of gonidia preventing either decay or death. Barring accidents many lichens might exist as long as the world endures.