Day 311: Recently, I gave a talk to a group of Park volunteers which was primarily focused on lichen species. The first half was conducted indoors and a field trip through Longmire Campground was scheduled for the second half. The field-trip hour turned into two and a half as I conducted part of the group through a more extensive exploration as their enthusiasm gave me the opportunity to talk about one of my favourite subjects. With some adaptations, I will be using the same lecture material for a Nisqually Land Trust talk in a few weeks, but since the Pacific Northwest will soon be entering its autumn weather pattern (read, "rain"), I'm planning an indoor "field trip" for the attendees. To that end, I want to gather specimens of a dozen or so of our most common lichen genera to have available for "hands-on," and one species which I most wanted to demonstrate was Xanthoria polycarpa, so showy with its bright orange colour. That presented a small problem: the only place I knew where I could collect a sample without spending a lot of time driving was behind the gate to a closed community where a friend used to live (and no, I don't know any of her former neighbours). I was about to despair of finding it in a more accessible location when lo and behold, there it was, growing on an ancient Oregon Ash beside one of the waypoints for my Land Trust "Forest Succession" talk, right on my very own beat, and I'd never noticed it before. Maybe I'd been too focused on the Poison Hemlock nearby. Funny how a little thing like that can distract you.
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