I came across more photos of those iridescent Begonias and was reminded to look up why they evolved to be that way! It looks like it’s the result of low light adaptations.
Iridescent flowers are common in nature. Their sparkly petals attract bees’ attention, tempting them to come over and pollinate the flower. But why would leaves be iridescent? This is the question Heather Whitney, a plant scientist at University of Bristol, asked while studying iridescent flowers.
“This seemed very odd to me,” Whitney told Popular Science. “By and large you do not want to attract insects (herbivores) to leaves.” Furthermore, she noticed that these iridescent leaves were always found in shade plants. This seemed counterintuitive since one would expect plants growing in the shade to scavenge every available bit of light. Iridescence reflects some light away, though.
Plants in the Begonia genus, whose iridescent leaves make them favorites among houseplant lovers, thrive in low light. A paper published today in Nature Plants suggests that the dazzling iridescence displayed by some Begonia species may actually be their way of enhancing photosynthesis in deep shade.
Um … anyone else having trouble uploading/editing multiple-picture-posts? Is this a my dumb internet thing? Or a new post-version thing? Ugh, annoying. I will try not to let it get me down and color my opinion of today’s lichen, M. polyphaea. This crustose lichen has a thin, wrinkled, gray-green thallus with black-disked apothecia. The surface is often coated in a thin layer of powdery pruina. M. polyphaea grows closely attached to smooth tree bark in the SW U.S. Pretty sure. There are records of it growing elsewhere, but the description I am reading is pretty specific about that range. IDK, a lot of things aren’t making sense to me today. But you know what does make sense? Falling in love with little dudes like this.
I have been really thinking I need a haircut lately. I can’t pull off the long-haired, brunette look like N. abbreviata. This brittle, fruticose lichen grows on conifers in chaparral and coast-adjacent woodland. It has a reddish-brown, fruticose thallus, and flat, concolorous apothecia surrounded in a ciliate margin. Nododobryoria was only recognized as a sperate genus from Bryoria lichens in 1995 due to a difference in chemical composition and cellular structure. Goes to show you shouldn’t judge a lichen by its thallus–it’s what’s on the inside that counts!
ok, before I get a bunch of messages and reblogs like “Oh! I’ve seen this! It’s all over my neighborhood!” I am gonna kill your hopes and dreams right now by saying what you are most likely seeing is Xanthoria parietina, which is super common pretty much everywhere and grows on just about everything. But, if your neighborhood happens to be a wind-swept, rocky, coastal habitat in Europe or northern Africa, this might actually be your guy! X. aureola is has a thick, golden-yellow to orange, foliose thallus made up of narrow, strap-shaped, overlapping lobes. It rarely produces apothecia, which are flat, round, and concolorous with the upper surface. It grows on nutrient-rich or siliceous rocks and cliffs along the seashore, and occasionally on walls and old wood.
Can you believe people have the gall to describe P. herrei as “ragged?” When it is probably the most stunning thing I have seen today? The nerve, honestly. This foliose lichen has long, thin lobes that grow straight-up or drooping over. The lobe edges are covered in a thick layer of isidia (clonal propagules containing both algal and fungal components). The upper surface is typically a pale gray or green, sometimes turning brown after prolonged sun exposure. The lower surface is patchy white, gray, and brown with few rhizines. P. herrei grows on conifers in the Pacific NW of North America. And is beautiful and perfect and not ragged even a little bit.
Venerating celebrities is out, venerating lichens is IN! Public figures will let you down and devastate you emotionally but you know who would never do that to you? D. venustum. They’re your unproblematic fave now. Deal with it.
This crustose lichen grows in thick, white rosettes dotted with black or chalky gray apothecia. It colonizes calcium-rich rocks and human-made surfaces in open areas of northern Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Greenland.
