Looks like a tiny forest. A lichen that makes a person feel like a giant. Reindeer lichen has a pale greyish-white body, branching and re-branching into a dense, shrubby clump. Branches are cylindrical and hollow with a soft, powdery surface. It looks like a miniature tree or a piece of coral, a tiny forest frozen on the ground. The lichen of the miniature world, the one that makes a person feel like a giant. A lichen that shrinks the observer. What makes it special is the shape. A fruticose lichen – it grows upright, like a tiny shrub, rather than flat on the ground. Branches divide and re-divide, forming a dense, rounded clump 5 to 10 centimetres tall. Branches are covered in tiny, fuzzy projections called cilia, giving them a soft, powdery appearance. Pale greyish-white, sometimes with a hint of green or blue. Grows slowly – a few millimetres per year – and a large clump may be decades old. The lichen of patience, the one that takes its time. Reproduces by fragmentation – pieces break off and grow into new clumps – and by spores. A partnership – a fungus and an alga living together. The fungus provides structure and protection. The alga provides food through photosynthesis. The forest floor is open. The reindeer lichen grows, pale and branching, a tiny forest at knee height. A finger runs through the branches. They are soft and powdery. The lichen does not know it is a partnership. It does not know it takes decades to grow. It just wants to be left alone. The tiny forest is patient. It has been here for decades. It will be here for decades more.