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.
Friday, April 15, 2016
Forest Stoplight
Day 185: Longmire Campground is a particularly lichen-rich area, trees festooned with Alectoria sarmentosa, branches entirely masked by lavish colonies of Lobaria oregana and Lobaria pulmonaria, a quilt of Stereocaulon and Cladina rangiferina laid over mossy rocks which were once riverbed. It has its share of vascular plants, but the overall impression a visitor receives is of an understory thick with moss and lichen. A few oddities crop up now and then, such as Hemitomes congestum, a mycoheterotroph also known as Gnome Plant, implying that the mycorrhizal elements here contribute to a diverse and complex micro-ecology.
Having somewhat neglected the more common lichens of the area, I went exploring for textbook specimens to photograph for my records. Into the forest a few hundred yards, I was wading through mounds of Cladina and Stereocaulon when a brilliant red "stoplight" pulled me to a halt. It was perhaps the most luxurious colony of Cladonia bellidiflora I have ever found, more unusual because it appeared to be confined entirely to one moss-covered boulder not much larger than a cantaloupe. A few other scattered specimens were found as well, at most three or four in a group, none so lavish as those found on this one rock. "Micro-ecology," indeed! Why in this spot and no other? I wish they would explain themselves!
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