Q. In the nature, which of the following is/are most likely to be found surviving on a surface without soil?

  1. Fern
  2. Litchen
  3. Moss
  4. Mushroom

Select the correct answer using the code given below

  • 1 and 4 Only
  • 2 Only
  • 2 and 3
  • 1, 3 and 4

Answer: (c) 2 and 3

Notes:

  • Lichens have specific requirements for their habitats. These requirements are: water, air, nutrients, light, and substrates. Every lichen lives on top of something else. The surface of that “something else” is called a substrate. Just about anything that holds still long enough for a lichen to attach to and grow is a suitable substrate. Trees, rocks, soil, houses, tombstones, cars, old farm equipment and more can be substrates. The most common natural substrates are trees and rocks.
    • Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an alga.
      • The dominant partner is the fungus, which gives the lichen the majority of its characteristics, from its thallus shape to its fruiting bodies.
      • The alga can be either a green alga or a blue-green alga, otherwise known as cyanobacteria.
  • Mosses are non-flowering plants which produce spores and have stems and leaves, but don’t have true roots. So, without roots, some moss suck nutrients up through the rhizoids and others draw in moisture and minerals from rain and the water around them through their highly absorbent surfaces. It often grows from trees, absorbing water and nutrients from the atmosphere, but with proper care it can also grow indoors.  
  • Fern is a member of a group of  vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem). They grow in soils. There are four particular types of habitats that ferns are found in: moist, shady forests; crevices in rock faces, especially when sheltered from the full sun; acid wetlands including bogs and swamps; and tropical trees.
  • A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. 
    • Mushroom, the conspicuous umbrella-shaped fruiting body (sporophore) of certain fungi. 
    • Mushrooms can form a symbiotic relationship with trees. Mushrooms can also be grown hydroponically as fungi. 
    • Most of the time, they grow in healthy soil. However, they could be growing because the soil contained spores, the environment is allowing for their growth or the plants are being overwatered.