Day 107: As if I didn't have enough on my plate already, this beautiful little lichen is a taxonomic nightmare. Formerly known as Sphaerophorus globosus and listed as such as late as two weeks ago in LIAS ("A Global Information System for Lichenized and Non-Lichenized Ascomycetes"), it was only shown in one reputable reference as Sphaerophorus venerabilis. As of this week, its new nomenclature has been updated in LIAS. You might wonder why I don't just shrug and move on. Well, I had *just* finished updating the taxonomy for lichen species catalogued in Mount Rainier National Park...roughly 500 species...and had turned the paperwork over to Plant Ecologist Arnie Peterson about ten days ago.
The first hitch in the works was that within two days of being given the updated list, he sent me a note of correction on a different species (one of my favourites). "'Pilophoron' is the accepted genus," he wrote. "'Pilophorus' has gone out of date. I'm going to watch when your head explodes." I replied, "Pilophoronus. There. That's settled." And then I went down the hall where I could bang my head on the wall in private.
So, between Sphaerophorus VENERABILIS and PILOPHORON, if you should hear a loud explosion from the west coast, you can bet that Arnie is sitting on the sidelines chuckling. As rapidly as science brings us new discoveries from the natural world, taxonomists gather over beers to think up new ways to plague those of us charged with disseminating the information.
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