Pseudohydnum Winter Reprise

Day 105: With a gag order in place to prevent me from talking about anything to do with climate change on our official Park pages, I reviewed my scheduled posts last night to be sure I hadn't said anything "seditious" in my botanical discussions...no mention of warmer summer temperatures or of lichens growing only where the air is unpolluted, no references to animals changing their ranges in order to adapt to diminishing food sources. As a naturalist, I find it very difficult to keep those things out of any communication since they are so close to my heart. It's going to be tough to keep my weekly feature going when I'm limited to engaging people with plain and undeniable statements: "This is a lichen. We have a lot of them in the Pacific Northwest." Stop right there. I mustn't say, "...because the on-shore flow keeps the air in our forests clean."

I've been mulling over what I can and can't do under the new regime. I decided that introducing some lichen basics would be safe, so to that end, I went out for a walk this morning to find examples of crustose, foliose and fruticose growth habits. I found them all, and got a bonus in person of the largest Pseudohydnum gelatinosum I've ever seen, a full three inches tall and two inches across. Usually, they're just little translucent jelly-blobs the size of your thumbnail. They can't be mistaken for anything else. They are the only white, translucent stalked fungus with "teeth" instead of gills. They're great. I mean, really. Usually tiny, but great.

Wait...who's knocking on my door? Is that the censor? Oh, dear. I said "tiny," didn't I?