II. GENERAL NUTRITION
A. Absorption of Water
Lichens are capable of enduring almost complete desiccation, but though they can exist with little injury through long periods of drought, water is essential to active metabolism. They possess no special organs for water conduction, but absorb moisture over their whole surface. Several interdependent factors must therefore be taken into account in considering the question of absorption: the type of thallus, whether gelatinous or non-gelatinous, crustaceous, foliose or fruticose, as also the nature of the substratum and the prevailing condition of the atmosphere.
a. Gelatinous Lichens. The algal constituent of these lichens is some member of the Myxophyceae and is provided with thick gelatinous walls which have great power of imbibition and swell up enormously in damp surroundings, becoming reservoirs of water. Species of Collema, for instance, when thoroughly wet, weigh thirty-five times more than when dry[834]. There are no interstices in the thallus and frequently no cortex in these lichens, but the gelatinous substance itself forms on drying an outer skin that checks evaporation so that water is retained within the thallus for a longer period than in non-gelatinous forms. They probably always retain some amount of moisture, as they share with gelatinous algae the power of revival after long desiccation.
Gelatinous lichens are entirely dependent on a surface supply of water: their hyphae—or rhizinae when present—rarely penetrate the substratum.
b. Crustaceous non-gelatinous Lichens. The lichens with this type of thallus are in intimate contact with the substratum whether it be soil, rock, tree or dead wood. The hyphae on the under surface of the thallus function primarily as hold-fasts, but if water be retained in the substratum, the lichen will undoubtedly benefit, and water, to some extent, will be absorbed by the walls of the hyphae or will be drawn up by capillary attraction. In any case, it could only be surface water that would be available, as lichens have no means of tapping any deeper sources of supply.
Lichens are, however, largely independent of the substratum for their supply of water. Sievers[835], who gave attention to the subject, found that though some few crustaceous lichens took up water from below, most of them absorbed the necessary moisture on the surface or at the edges of the thallus or areolae, where the tissue is looser and more permeable. The swollen gelatinous walls of the hyphae forming the upper layers of such lichens are admirably adapted for the reception and storage of water, though, according to Zukal[836], less hygroscopic generally than in the larger forms. Beckmann[837] proved this power of absorption, possessed by the upper cortex, by placing a crustaceous lichen, Haematomma sp., in a damp chamber: he found after a while that water had been taken up by the cortex and by the gonidial zone, while the lower medullary hyphae had remained dry.
Herre[838] has recorded an astonishing abundance of lichens from the desert of Reno, Nevada, and these are mostly crustaceous forms, belonging to a limited number of species. The yearly rainfall of the region is only about eight or ten inches, and occurs during the winter months, chiefly as snow. It is during that period that active vegetation goes on; but the plants still manage to exist during the long arid summer, when their only possible water supply is that obtained from the moisture of the atmosphere during the night, or from the surface deposit of dews.