Day 84: I am a regular contributor to the Burke Museum's Herbarium Image Collection. I've lost track of how many photos I've had put up, but they include vascular plants, lichens and the occasional fungus. A few days ago, I sent in two images, and when the curator notified me that they'd been posted on the spanking-new webpage, I wanted to check to be sure they were listed correctly. When the webpage loaded, the banner was displaying one of my photos of Usnea longissima, taken at Rainey Creek in Lewis County. The banner rotates through a series of images; I was very proud to see one of mine included. It inspired me to take a walk to Rainey Creek today, but I was not prepared to see that the Usnea-bearing tree had been undermined by the creek and its remains, bare of anything resembling green matter, were under mud and water. The discovery left me feeling very sad. It was one of the most lush Usnea longissima colonies I've seen. The lichen only grows where the air is purest, and fifty feet back from the creek, no more can be found.
I have not explored all of the Rainey Creek area by any means. For one thing, it's choked with reed-canary grass and strikes me as a prime location for collecting ticks. I don't venture off the path when the grass is high. Today, though, it was fairly well beaten down and the muddy paths usually concealed beneath it were open and visible. I decided to go on an Usnea hunt. My efforts were rewarded with the discovery of several other nice Usnea-bearing trees, and another pair of gems which will appear in this blog over the next two days, one of which has already been forwarded to the Burke. Government shutdown or not, I'm still hunting plants, albeit for different agencies.
Footnote: As of this date, I have 94 images in the Burke database (4 more are pending). The new site lets you browse by photographer.
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