Lichen in Close-up

First, you should click on this image to see it in more detail. When I was cutting up the neighbor's Dogwood tree, I noticed some beautiful light green Lichen on some of the branches. I stopped to look at it closely, and was fascinated. So I cut off a small branch and brought it home. This branch is about 3/4" in diameter, and this is a fairly extreme close-up. I looked up "Lichen" in Wikipedia, and I could not understand what they were explaining! Here, you try it: "Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a fungus (the mycobiont) and a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont) growing together in a symbiotic relationship. The photobiont is usually either a green alga (commonly Trebouxia) or cyanobacterium (commonly Nostoc)." See, what did I tell you. Anyhow, I love the colors and the shapes of these organisms. They look otherworldly to me. I photographed this one branch several times over a couple of weeks, trying to find both the best light and the best background that show this subject most effectively.