Day 190: I liked this lichen when it was Xanthoria polycarpa, but then the taxonomists got hold of some research showing that it wasn't actually a Xanthoria and needed a different name. They dubbed it Polycauliona polycarpa, and now I like it even more because that's just so much fun to say: "Polly-collie-own-a," as if your parrot was trying to tell you it had adopted a dog, but couldn't quite get the words in the right order. Anyone who has hadd a parrot or macaw companion has likely experienced the issues birds have with English grammar structure (sidebar: my mother's parrot Turkey used to sing "Happy birthkey, dear Turkday!"). In any event, however delightful "Polycauliona" is to pronounce, it still tends to slip my mind when I see it on a tree, and although I remember that it's no longer "Xanthoria," its new name tends to elude me. Its new name tells me nothing which would assist with field identification other than the fact that it is very fruitful (meaning it has a lot of apothecia, i.e., the little round disks filling much of the central portion of this specimen). When it was Xanthoria, I could assume it was yellow (xanthous). However, the human mind being the strange thing it is, wandering off to form wild connections in its recesses, perhaps I can remember "Polycauliona" by associating it with Turkey, a Yellow-naped Amazon.
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