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Can you help me understand lichens better?

Hi - I am moving to a beautiful place in the Southern California desert (between Anza and Tememcula) that has rock formations all over the place. While I am not an avid rock climber I do like to scramble over them and climb atop them to enjoy the spectacular views. Most of the rocks have a lot of lichen on them (orange, bright and dark yellow, black with tiny spiney growths, a smattering of black that look like tiny lily pads, and a gray, smooth, crusty kind). I read the Wikipedia entry for lichens and it was kind of confusing to me. Can you help me learn more about them in simpler terms? I'm not a dummy - I swear. Also, can you tell me if I should be concerned about damaging them by walking over them or are they pretty hearty? Should I be worried about catching some weird fungal infection by touching them (um, I'm only partly kidding!)? I'd appreciate any links you want to throw my way. Thanks in advance!

Lichens are hardy so occasional trampling does no harm to them.

They are , by and large , non infectious .

Their abundance in a locality is a sure indication of unpolluted atmosphere .

There are no lichens in the industrialized localities as they can not stand air pollution.

The lichen body is made up of two distinct organisms.

1 ) The main organism is a FUNGUS ( related to mushrooms and the likes )

2 ) The secondary organism is an ALGA ( mostly from Cyanophyceae ).

The fungus absorbs water and the nutrients from the surroundings and pass it to the algal cells .

The algal cells do photosynthesis ( Fungi can not do it , due to the lack of chlorophyll ) and the manufactured food ( Carbohydrates ) are shared by both .

Thus it is an example of mutualism ( You help me , I help you ! ).

Lichens are very hardy and survive in the most adverse conditions ( Except Pollution of any kind )

In the link below you will see a sectional view of a lichen.
in that blue/green cells are Algal Cells .

Rest of the body is fungal hyphae ( Branches ) It is the major partner .
Sordia are the reproductive bodies .
At the lowermost end you will see 8 projections , they are the rhizoids .
They anchor the lichen body and do absorption .

http://biology.unm.edu/ccouncil/Biology_203/Images/Fungi/lichen%20diagram.jpeg

See some more pictures -
1 ) Crustose lichens ( Form a crust or a layer on the surface on which they grow . You have encountered them!)

http://www.dimijianimages.com/More-page4-mutualisms/lichens-Colorado.jpg

http://www.earthlife.net/lichens/images/crustose.jpg

2 ) Foliose lichens ( Leaf like appearance )

http://www.stridvall.se/la/Bilder/Pseudocyphellaria_aurata.jpg

http://www.geol.lu.se/personal/LFB/Fig7.jpg

http://www.earthlife.net/lichens/images/foliose.jpg

You will get more information on the following links ----

http://images.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://www.earthlife.net/lichens/images/crustose.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.earthlife.net/lichens/lichen.html&h=159&w=287&sz=22&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=yZNKCNn9Iqt7zM:&tbnh=64&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcrustose%2Blichens%2B%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnolichenology

http://www.blackturtle.us/DV_PLANTS/LICHEN/

http://www.lichen.com/

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