大象传媒

A village graveyard is a peaceful place. Bill Oddie looks at the blotches and patterns on the gravestones - these are lichens. They are an amalgam of an alga and a fungus. Different kinds grow on different kinds of stone, and because of the variety of stone in graveyards, diverse species can be found. Most of them have long unmemorable Latin names. Flowers are often named for their appearance or medicinal properties, so Bill wonders why the same is not true for lichens. He decides to make up some names - a gold one could be the rusty or orange juice stain lichen. It was also used to cure jaundice because it was yellow, so how about The Week Off School Lichen as a name? On a sandstone is a green lichen that looks like paint stains, and others that look like an oil stain and seagull poo.