Category: algae and fungi...

• algae ranging in size from tiny flagellate Micromonas (.00004 in. diameter) to giant kelp that reach 200-feet-long
• algae providing much of the Earth's oxygen and being the food base for almost all aquatic life
• the lovely names of algae like dulse, fucus, nostoc, pond scum, and wrack
• fungi's molds, mildews, and mushrooms -- plug rusts, smuts, and yeasts
• fungi being among the most widely distributed organisms on Earth, but excluded from the plant kingdom because they do not contain chlorophyll nor the structure of stems, roots, and leaves
• fungi are the culmination of a major direction in evolution distinctly different from that of plants or animals -- based on their nutrition coming from absorption of organic matter
• phycology is the study of algae and mycology is that of fungi
• lichens are part-algae and part-fungus; the algae in lichens make food and the fungus wraps around the algae to protect it from the sun
• Lichens consist of fungi living in association with algae or cyanobacteria.
• a typical fungus is made of many threads growing on or in a food source; the threads, hyphae, ooze chemicals that break down the food and releases nutrients that hyphae can soak up
• about one in four fungi lives in partnership with an alga = and these partnerships are called lichens
• many fungi play a vital role in food webs: their digestive action is the first step in breaking down dead plant and animal matter, making it useful to other lifeforms
• algae make up most of the oceans' phytoplankton, microscopic lifeforms photosynthesizing at the ocean surface
• all seaweeds contain chlorophyll, but some have extra pigments that make them appear brown or red

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