Have you ever noticed the strange, colorful splotches clinging to rocks, tree bark, or even old fences after a rainy day?

Have you ever paused beneath a towering oak or maple and wondered if that rough, gnarled bark is hiding secrets? What if I told you ... Read more The post What Tree Bark Can Tell You About Local ...

Lichens are often seen growing on the bark of trees, and while they might seem like a threatening addition, they actually provide significant advantages for the health and well-being of trees.

Lichens, depending on the type, have favorite places to grow. For example, a lichen that grows on tree bark will rarely be found on stone. Lichens do not damage plants or rob tree bark of moisture.

Lichen grow on many kinds of surfaces including trees, soil and rocks. The kinds that land on trees have found a stable surface that has sufficient sunlight, moisture, and minerals to sustain them.

The greenshields are a foliose type of lichen, a form that is leaf-like with flat sheets of tissue that can be peeled from the substrate, in the case of common greenshield, from the bark of a tree.

When we see something weird growing on tree bark, it is usually algae, lichens, moss, or fungi (or a combination of these). These can be gray, white, green, or even orange.

This image shows a common greenshield lichen, which grows on the bark of trees and occasionally on rocks. But instead of driving, take a walk.

Lichens can be found growing on the bark of trees and shrubs, and in the undergrowth. They can tell us a lot about the air quality and climate around them because they absorb the nutrients ...

The lichen species, however, have been there for far longer. And although they're not new to the planet, they are new to science, which is why the word "new" is used to describe the two species.

Q. My 20-something-old redbud tree has developed lichens on the trunk, which is a first. Do I have a problem and is there anything I should do? I have another one in the yard which doesn’t have ...