365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
On The Subject Of Beards
Day 12: Usneas came up in conversation this morning...yes, I do have friends who talk lichens with me...so I decided to go for a drive and short walk to visit my favourite species, Usnea longissima. Besides being one of the most graceful and beautiful of our local lichens, U. longissima is highly sensitive to pollutants. You can be assured that you're breathing the best air when you find yourself amid trees adorned with its streamers.
This Usnea is largely a lowland species, but that said, it is considered threatened world-wide, and has in fact been extirpated in much of its normal range, over-harvested by collectors selling "moss" to the floral industry. The strands can be up to ten feet long, and the sight of them swaying in the breeze will quickly clue you into how this lichen is transported. They blow on the wind like feathers, the tendrils catching on any available twig, gathering into gauzy curtains of pale green lace. At this site, they seem to have a preference for cottonwood, and occur only on those trees closest to a small stream. I've monitored this location for several years, and am happy to say they seem to be thriving.
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