What are "land clothes" (지의 地衣)?

Answer: lichen

An online Google definition of lichen is as follows:

a simple slow-growing plant that typically forms a crust-like, leaf-like, or branching growth on rocks, walls, and trees

The Sino-Korean word for lichen is 지의 (地衣), which literally translates as "land (地) clothes (衣)." It can also be referred to as 지의류 (地衣類), which can be translated as "a kind of lichen."

The Korean name makes sense since, according to Wikipedia, an estimated 6 percent of the earth's land surface is covered with lichen, which grows even in the artic. And I would guess that more than 6 percent of Korea's land surface is dressed in "land clothes."

By the way, the pure Korean word for lichen or moss is 이끼, and the pure Korean word for rock moss is 돌옷, which literally translates as "rock (돌) clothes (옷)."