Word: lichen
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...could be the name of an infectious disease, a moss lichen or a law-school seminar. Reggae (pronounced ray-gay) is the local jargon of Jamaicans distinguishing "regular" rhythm from calypso. To millions of fans, the lilting pop rock with the spicy island beat is the Caribbean's most captivating musical export since steel bands...
Before the smoke and soot from the burning coal and wood of the Industrial Revolution began to blacken the bark of England's trees, the predominant variety of peppered moth had light-colored, speckled wings that blended perfectly with lichen-covered tree bark and camouflaged the insects against predatory birds. A mutant form of the moth, with black wings, was easily spotted against the light-colored tree bark, picked off and eaten. The surviving black moths were so rare, in fact, that the first one was not captured until...
...slow-motion rhythms of Arctic life, a crop of simple lichen may take 100 years to grow to maturity?a few inches high. Arctic char, a staple Eskimo food, keeps on growing for 18 years. Migratory birds?lesser Canada geese, eider ducks, American pintails, whistling swans, Brant geese?must time their breeding to the day. If winter is unusually long, a whole species may achieve zero population growth because it lacks time to hatch and rear its young before the ice begins to return in late August...
...Central Garrison Because of the far-reaching effects of the class struggle, especially the Two-Road Struggle in the villages on ideology, and also the natural disaster which happened last year and this year, there is some unrest in thought among a part of our comrades. The soldier Chang Lichen said: "At present, what the peasants eat in the villages is even worse than what dogs ate in the past. At that time dogs ate chaff and grain." Commune members ask: "Is Chairman Mao going to allow us to starve to death?" The soldier Liu Ho-shan said: "Our country...
...benefits to man are countless. The fragile inky cap is delicious if gathered young and cooked promptly. Lichen, formed by the union of fungi and algae, eats into rock, prepares it to become new soil. The molds that make Camembert are fungi; so are the yeasts that leaven bread and ferment grapes, grains, berries, cacti, honey and camel's milk into alcohol. Yeasts keep industry in ferment as well, assist in the manufacture of paint remover, antifreeze, synthetic rubber, adhesives, cosmetics and perfume. Yeast-feeding produces better pelts in mink, more honey from bees, faster growth in trout...