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.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Penny Perspectives - Graphis Scripta
Day 119: At first glance, you could be excused for describing the bark of Red Alder (Alnus rubra) as a patchwork of white, grey and pale grey-green, when in actuality it is ash-grey to greyish-brown beneath a dappled surface. The motley coloration evidenced here in the "Pacific Northwe't" can be credited to a variety of finely crustose lichen species, among them the delightful Graphis scripta (Common Script Lichen). Its specialized apothecia (fruiting bodies) take the form of linear lirellae resembling pencil marks scribbled on a white canvas (the thallus of the species). Graphis scripta is the only script lichen common outside the southern US, and may be found on birch as well as alder within its PNW range. Presented here as a Penny Perspective, you may want to take a hand lens if you go hunting for it!
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