We reach for "symbiosis" as a shorthand for harmony or neat partnership.
But from 19th-century botany to modern lichen biology, the true nature of living together is far stranger.
On heartbreak, de Bary, and why a lichen is actually a song:
splashofelectricink.substack.com/p/a-lichen-i...
splashofelectricink.substack.com
A lichen is a song
We treat "symbiosis" as a synonym for ideal partnership, but the true nature of lichen reveals a much stranger, fluid reality.