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!
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.
Dark lichens are easily overlooked compared to their flashier cousins, but when you get up close and personal, you can see how stunning they truly are! This strongly lobed, foliose lichen grows in rounded rosettes closely attached to vertical, siliceous rock. It has a dark olive to brown to black upper surface, and a dark, rhizinate lower surface. It produces dark brown to black soredia, and only rarely, sorediate-encircled apothecia. M. disjuncta grows in boreal and montane habitats in North America, Europe, northern Asia, and central Africa.
Can you believe this little little gray spot is a lichen? It’s true. A. trolocularis is a foliicolous lichen, meaning it grows on the surface of long-lasting leaves.
A little inside peak into Lichenaday HQ–when I search for images of a lichen, a lot of times I get pictures like this:
This is a picture from a botanical collection (The New York Botanical Garden in this one) of a lichen specimen. And a lot of times, these pictures are not that great. Like in this picture, it is hard to know what you are supposed to be looking at because there’s a big, dry, dead leaf with a bunch of splotches on it. And believe it or not, this is one of the better ones I’ve seen! Because A. trilocularis, the subject hear, is kinda just a splotch on a leaf, and this was the only picture of it I could find that actually like, shows *the leaf.* For a lot of other lichens, once they are dried and aged, they don’t look like the living specimen at all, and the pictures are often from such a distance that you can’t tell what the F you are looking at. But those are the only pictures I find for lots of species. I avoid posting them because they are usually not great to look at and not super helpful for field ID purposes, but I thought I’d share this one so you get an idea of the substrate for this little splotchy fella.
Naming a kid anytime soon? Have you considered the name Coralliza? And they can go by Liza, and people will be like, “oh, like Liza Minnelli?” and they can be like “No, like the lichen.” This crustose lichen is described as coralloid, or coral-like in growth form. It grows in 2 mm thick patches of cracked, grainy, bright yellow thallus. It has flat-disked, yellow apothecia, often with a gray or black tint. C. coralliza is ornithocoprophilic, meaning it likes to grow where there is lots of bird poop! So you can often find it near coasts or high in the mountains, growing on rocks and roofs frequented by perching birds. Maybe not what you want to name your kid after, but maybe it would be a reminder that even beautiful things can some out of shitty situations.
I’ll be honest with you–not a big fan of April Fool’s day. Maybe because I am gullible, or not clever enough to think of my own pranks. So instead, I am sharing what I *hope* is an elaborate prank lichens are pulling on us–The Timucua Heart Lichen Project.
The Timucua Heart Lichen (Cora timucua) is a species of lichen endemic to Florida and the only species in the genus Cora to have inhabited the United States. It is named after the Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central portions of what is now Florida. While historically its range included large areas of Florida, the only areas where the lichen has been reported in the second half of the 20th century are the Ocala National Forest and the O’Leno State Park. Despite its showy appearance, the species has not been collected or observed since 1985, so it is at least critically endangered or possibly even extinct. The main goal of the proposed project is to conduct an extensive and cooperative search for the species throughout its historical range and areas where the species could potentially grow, to investigate if it still exists in the wild and if so, to propose actions for its conservation. The search will engage a diverse group of people, including scientific experts, lichen enthusiasts, land managers, and the general public. Cora timucua grew primarily on shrubs in the endangered Florida sand pine scrub ecoregion, of which only 10-15% is estimated to remain intact. Thus, the majority of the search effort will be conducted in that ecoregion.
I hope dearly that this gorgeous pal is just hiding somewhere out there, and we will find it alive and well in due time.
A phenomenon called “crown shyness” can be found in Camphor trees, where the crowns of the Camphor trees do not touch each other and form channels in the canopy. The camphor tree is used to produce Vic’s Vapor Rub and Tigerbalm. Scientists still have not found a reason for the phenomena. Their most likely hypothesis is that the trees release a type of gas that warns other trees to stay away.
Wish me luck in getting a new job that requires me to just write reports and sit in an office forever and that I don’t have to fish dead animals from a stream ever again.
I’ve been purging my books lately and I came across a few that I literally haven’t opened since I was obsessed with the idea of being a park ranger (I’m named after my great grandfather who was a fish and game warden! It was supposed to be my destiny!!!). I don’t really want these anymore, but I also don’t just want to take them to the used bookstore up the street, so a giveaway seems to be in order.
The chosen person would get all 3 books, they should be a follower of mine, and need to be comfortable giving me a good mailing address. I’ll choose a winner on January 1st using a random number generator. Both likes and reblogs count (I’m not trying to get more followers here, I just want the books to go to someone who would actually love them).
The books are as follows:
Top left - Marci actually gave this one to me when I interned with her in college. It’s a pretty technical book about native Pennsylvania plants and how to use them to provide habitat for animals. It’s seriously very technical. There’s tables with soil types and acidity in there.
Top right- I also got this in college when I went to a PA Game Commison talk. It’s basically a biography of the agency and what cool stuff they’ve done in 100 years.
Bottom middle - A series of short stories told by park rangers. Some are really funny and they all show a pretty good range of experiences by national park rangers across the US.
A winner has been chosen! I’ll send you a message to get all your information soon c:
I’ve been purging my books lately and I came across a few that I literally haven’t opened since I was obsessed with the idea of being a park ranger (I’m named after my great grandfather who was a fish and game warden! It was supposed to be my destiny!!!). I don’t really want these anymore, but I also don’t just want to take them to the used bookstore up the street, so a giveaway seems to be in order.
The chosen person would get all 3 books, they should be a follower of mine, and need to be comfortable giving me a good mailing address. I’ll choose a winner on January 1st using a random number generator. Both likes and reblogs count (I’m not trying to get more followers here, I just want the books to go to someone who would actually love them).
The books are as follows:
Top left - Marci actually gave this one to me when I interned with her in college. It’s a pretty technical book about native Pennsylvania plants and how to use them to provide habitat for animals. It’s seriously very technical. There’s tables with soil types and acidity in there.
Top right- I also got this in college when I went to a PA Game Commison talk. It’s basically a biography of the agency and what cool stuff they’ve done in 100 years.
Bottom middle - A series of short stories told by park rangers. Some are really funny and they all show a pretty good range of experiences by national park rangers across the US.
I’ve been purging my books lately and I came across a few that I literally haven’t opened since I was obsessed with the idea of being a park ranger (I’m named after my great grandfather who was a fish and game warden! It was supposed to be my destiny!!!). I don’t really want these anymore, but I also don’t just want to take them to the used bookstore up the street, so a giveaway seems to be in order.
The chosen person would get all 3 books, they should be a follower of mine, and need to be comfortable giving me a good mailing address. I’ll choose a winner on January 1st using a random number generator. Both likes and reblogs count (I’m not trying to get more followers here, I just want the books to go to someone who would actually love them).
The books are as follows:
Top left - Marci actually gave this one to me when I interned with her in college. It’s a pretty technical book about native Pennsylvania plants and how to use them to provide habitat for animals. It’s seriously very technical. There’s tables with soil types and acidity in there.
Top right- I also got this in college when I went to a PA Game Commison talk. It’s basically a biography of the agency and what cool stuff they’ve done in 100 years.
Bottom middle - A series of short stories told by park rangers. Some are really funny and they all show a pretty good range of experiences by national park rangers across the US.
I’ve been purging my books lately and I came across a few that I literally haven’t opened since I was obsessed with the idea of being a park ranger (I’m named after my great grandfather who was a fish and game warden! It was supposed to be my destiny!!!). I don’t really want these anymore, but I also don’t just want to take them to the used bookstore up the street, so a giveaway seems to be in order.
The chosen person would get all 3 books, they should be a follower of mine, and need to be comfortable giving me a good mailing address. I’ll choose a winner on January 1st using a random number generator. Both likes and reblogs count (I’m not trying to get more followers here, I just want the books to go to someone who would actually love them).
The books are as follows:
Top left - Marci actually gave this one to me when I interned with her in college. It’s a pretty technical book about native Pennsylvania plants and how to use them to provide habitat for animals. It’s seriously very technical. There’s tables with soil types and acidity in there.
Top right- I also got this in college when I went to a PA Game Commison talk. It’s basically a biography of the agency and what cool stuff they’ve done in 100 years.
Bottom middle - A series of short stories told by park rangers. Some are really funny and they all show a pretty good range of experiences by national park rangers across the US.
