Powder-tipped Shadow Lichen

This small, grey lichen is one of the first to colonize urban substrates - walls, concrete, asphalt, gravestones. Its powdery lobe tips (soredia) break off and establish new colonies, allowing rapid spread across human-made surfaces. It's essentially a lichen adapted to the built environment.

Powder-tipped shadow lichen demonstrates infrastructure adaptation - evolving to thrive on novel substrates created by human activity. As cities expand, it expands with them. The business parallel is companies that evolve to exploit new platforms: each technological shift creates new substrates, and adapted businesses colonize them rapidly through 'soredia-like' replication of successful models.