Day 140: You know how it goes. You spot something you've never seen before...a Greater Spotted Purple Jayfinch or a Volkswagen painted to look like a coconut jellybean...and you think, "Wow! Look what I found!" Then in the next week or two, you see ten or twenty more of them (whatever "they" are). At the very least, it makes you wonder if there is a sudden proliferation of "them," or perhaps it inclines you to reevaluate your powers of observation. I don't know how many times I've walked past this particular Red Alder on the South Swofford Trail thinking, "Yeah, yeah, that's another Hypogymnia" as I swept by, but while on the trail earlier this week, its "rosettishness" inspired me to take a closer look. Hypogymnias don't typically form rosettes, but several superficially similar species do. Even from a distance of six feet, I could tell this was no Hypogymnia. No, it was in fact a Menegazzia, a genus I only recently observed for the first time in Olympia. How had I missed it every single other bloody time I'd walked past the Swofford tree? The perforations in the lobes were obvious, as were the powdery soredia. I nicked a small sample, dropped it in one of the test tubes I always carry and brought it home for analysis, where I confirmed it as Menegazzia terebrata, aka Tree Flute. Now I s'pose I'll be finding them everywhere. You won't hear me complain.
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