365Caws is now in its 16th year of publication. If I am unable to post daily, I hope readers who love the natural world and fiberarts will seize those days to read the older material. Remember that this has been my journey as well, so you may find errors in my identifications of plants. I have tried to correct them as I discover them. Likewise, I have refined fiberarts techniques and have adjusted recipes, so search by tags to find the most current information. And thank you for following me!
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Graphis Scripta, Script Lichen
Day 36: It's always a thrill for me when I find Graphis scripta in a new location, mainly because it's darned hard to spot unless you have your nose pressed right up against the host tree. Many lichens have a thin white thallus, as you'd discover if you began looking closely at the bark of Alnus rubra, Red Alder. It's called "red" for a reason, although in the Pacific Northwest, the true colour is generally so thickly colonized by those assorted lichens that alder bark gives the overall impression of being grey. That said, G. scripta seems to be less common than other lichens, so I've made a personal project out of finding it. At least locally, it tends to be restricted to the lower portions of tree trunks, only occurring above 3' in height in rare circumstances. The black "scribbles" which characterize the lichen are called "lirellae," i.e., fruiting bodies (apothecia) which, if viewed closely, exhibit a groove down the center of the length. Some subtlety in its appearance caused me to step off the trail for a closer look at one young alder yesterday, and sure enough, G. scripta's Ogham characters had been written in a shaky hand a foot above ground level, untranslatable, elegant and almost too small to see.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment