Day 99: There are a lot of Usnea species which aren't covered in the Forty-Pound Field Guide, so I won't emulate this one by going out on a limb to identify it. Suffice to say that it's as fine as an example of Mother Nature's lace-making skills as any piece ever entered in a state fair. I can say that several identifying features are absent or present, e.g., its bushy growth habit, the fact that the tendrils are not regularly dichotomously branched, its pussywillow host (as opposed to an evergreen); all factors which allow me to rule out a few species common in the Pacific Northwest, but nothing I can point up to say, "Yes, that's the one!" For whatever it's worth, several very similar specimens appear on Sharnoff's website under "Usnea - unidentified species" collected in Washington. Even if I can't pin it down, it appears I'm in good company.
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