Day 159: In my numerous walks on the Westside Road, I've noticed a paucity of lichen diversity and lichens in general. However, a few days ago, I came across a most luxurious colony of Cladonia grayi, one of the "mealy" pixie-cup species. It is not an uncommon lichen, but here was confined to one shelf of a rock outcropping about 8 inches wide and 18 inches long. Its occurrence in such a limited area made me wonder what conditions allowed it to establish there and not elsewhere on the same exposure. Is it some subtle difference in the substrate, a vein of some mineral in the rock? It was certainly nothing I could detect with the naked eye. Oh, for access to a laboratory and a tame lichen expert! There is so much I'd like to know about these fascinating life forms.
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