.

These three successive images clearly illustrate that such tiny cavities may contain enough water for green algae and can give rise to an associative life form; the lichens which are shown below.

Note the cup-shaped forms and leaf-like surfaces. The former may be called asci and contain fungi generally named ascomycetes.

.

Note the junction between the brown-black lava stone and green and leafy lichen. Do you notice the whitish mass just in between? This white tissue is a fungus and is made of thread-like structures called hyphae.

.

Did you find the fibrillar white structure (hyphae) at the centre, just inside that whitish fungal tissue?

.

Seen at a higher magnification

.

And in close-up (about 100 times magnified)

 
 

Comments to the author M. Halit Umar are welcomed.

All images presented in this article are © M. Halit Umar.
 

---

Some interesting Internet Links chosen for you from a large collection of sites:

An introductory account about Lanzarote or Canary Islands can be found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Parque Nacional de Timanfaya or The National Park of Timanfaya

A good start for an almost complete presentation of César Manrique

---