encrust

No lichens encrust the exposed rock.

McCrady’s, Langhorne recalls, might prepare a local fish but encrust it with lichens that he foraged.

Guests complain about their servants, encrust their manicures and teeth with diamonds and feed each other gold-flaked chocolate truffles.

But if hurricanes or other factors destroy the macroalgae, fire corals quickly move in and encrust surfaces, Edmunds reports today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. When the reef gets crowded, fire coral sprouts into its branching tree form, so it can continue to thrive in tight spaces and provide an upright structure that other organisms nibble on, live in, or otherwise use.

The nodules form on deep abyssal plains where sedimentation rates are low, allowing metal compounds dissolved in seawater to encrust a nucleus, like a shark tooth or a rock, over millions of years.