Day 126: They call it "Crottle," a word which I find delightfully contradictory in its crispness to the soft texture of Parmelia saxatilis. Also known as "Salted Shield Lichen," this Parmelia has an affinity for rock, the characteristic which caught my eye in the Five-Mile Lake parking area and caused me to say aloud, "Hmmmm, who do we have here?" I'd stopped at the park after doing some small shopping, more to conduct a survey for invasives than any other reason, and had quickly exhausted the sparse network of trails which climbed to the top (a whole twenty feet) of a forested mound. I scored an abundance of ivy, one English holly, one sturdy specimen of Scotch broom and was feeling rather disappointed as I walked back to the car. A faint childhood memory had led me to expect the park to be bigger. The whole park is 35 acres, with the lake taking up two-thirds of that space. Then I spotted our friend the Crottle, splatted without dignity on the side of a boulder. Not wanting to short myself of an important identifying characteristic, I photographed it and then carefully removed a lobe, tucking it safely into one of the test tubes I always have handy. A good thing I did, because examination of the rhizines narrowed my choices to two. Lobe width and substrate settled most of my reservations, although I'm still not 100% positive in my conclusion. I really need a lab.
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