[contingo]

But it's not a "hitherto conjectured form of symbiosis". It's just another example of facultative lichenization, which has already been observed in species quite widely scattered across the fungal kingdom. That to me doesn't count as a "new type of coexistence". The actual research behind the headline is valuable and entirely worthy of publication (I've made similar contributions myself), my critique relates to the headline, the angle of the reportage.

[TheRealPomax]

Welcome to the internet, I guess. The only way science websites get clicks is with these idiotic titles. Ignore them, read the article, judge it on the actual text's merit.