Loose
loose (adjective; opposite: attached) – separate, not attached, free. In a strict sense, loose only applies to structures that are completely unattached, e. g., vagrant lichen thalli. Nevertheless the term is also frequently used to describe structures that are attached at some point, but rather lax, i. e., not dense or compact, e. g., (1) paraphyses that are loosely connected, not conglutinate and thus easily freed in water; (2) foliose thalli that are hardly attached by a few minute to very short rhizines and thus grow at least partially free of their substrate, often with lobe tips ascending or even curled upward (this condition is sometimes difficult to identify, e. g., is an adnate or appressed thallus is covered by loose lobules).
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