Day 111: Well, I hit my brakes, heedless of the guy behind me for the split second it took to remember I was on a busy street, whereupon I put my foot back on the gas pedal and pulled into the next parking area. Then I hopped out of the car, camera in hand, to run back to the lichen I'd spotted while driving. Some things simply can't be ignored. But alas, once I got home and ran it through the field guides, the bit I pared off the tree with my thumbnail proved it to be something I'd seen before, although a somewhat older and more developed specimen. That said, it has a new name, and that makes it worth mention: Xanthoria polycarpa is now known as Polycauliona polycarpa, and if you don't feel like a parrot after saying "poly" that many times in succession, I'll be even more surprised. I'd rather hoped it might have turned out to be Xanthoria parietina (which for some odd reason is still placed in Xanthoria), but its lobes are too narrow. A second whoozamawhatsit, strongly sorediate and green with dark brown apothecia liberated from a different tree continues to elude me. As if I didn't have anything else to do with my time...
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