365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Hypotrachyna Sinuosa, Green Loop Lichen
Day 86: Holy soredia, Batman! Another life-list lichen, and this one right in my OWN BACK YARD! Winter always leaves me struggling for post material, and I find myself circling my garden spaces like the guy who keeps making trips to the refrigerator to see if anything new to eat has somehow magically appeared. I was certainly not expecting a new species (new genus, actually) to show up on the pussywillow at the corner of my garage. At first, I thought it was a Hypogymnia, but when I broke off a piece to check the colour of the medullary ceiling, I discovered it wasn't tubular at all. The lobes were a single layer, pale yellowish-green on top, black underneath. Was it a Parmeliopsis? No. Examination under the microscope showed branched rhizines confined to the lobe margins. Those of Parmeliopsis are unbranched. Powdery soredia populated the tips of the lobes. "Hmmm...got a little problem here," I said, and began paging through the forty-pound field guide back to front, hoping to find it before needing to break out the chemicals. At H, I came to a screeching halt. "Hypotrachyna sinuosa! Life-list! Bingo!" No doubt about it: it fit all the parameters. Also known as "Green Loop Lichen," it prefers humid, open forest and occurs on small branches of various types of bark. If finding two life-list species in the first week of 2020 is any indication of things to come, this should be a spectacular year, botanically speaking.
Labels:
Green Loop Lichen,
Hypotrachyna sinuosa,
Life List,
Pussywillow,
yard
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