Hericium Coralloides

Day 6: Walking through the forest, I disconnect from most conscious thought processes in favour of enhancing other senses. Trying to solve the world's woes or dwelling on things over which I have no control is counter-productive when striving to experience Nature at its fullest. Far better is it to simply live in the moment, letting sights and sounds chart the path. So it was that a Hericium caught the tail of my eye where it was set amid a tangle of salmonberry vines several feet off the trail, and I had gone past it a good ten steps before a detail registered subliminally. Abruptly snapped from reverie and into the strictures of science, I said aloud, "Hang on a mo'...that was the OTHER one." What exactly had keyed that conclusion? I couldn't have said at the time, but I walked backwards quite literally, step by step until the fungus was again in my field of vision. Then presented with the challenge of bulling my way through the thorns for an unobstructed photograph, I pulled down my sleeves, dropped my pack and inched my way toward the goal. In squatting down to take the picture, it was a given that I would pinch at least one salmonberry branch between the calf of my leg and the back of my thigh; this is just one of the hazards of my task as a botanist. Even as I knelt there, I could not have told you why I knew this was not Hericium abietis, our most common Hericium, although I studied the arrangement of its branches, the lacination of the tips and so on. It was not until I dragged out the field guides at home that I found I had been too narrowly focused, and that it was the fact that it was growing on Red Alder (Alnus rubra) which separated it from its morphologically identical cousin. Hericium coralloides grows on hardwood, not conifer. That was what had pushed the subconscious button, and only because my mind was free of life's daily detritus was the mental directory activated.

Frankia Nodules

Day 138: My initial reaction when I spotted these at a distance was, "Oooooooh, slime mold!" but when I got closer and saw the network of fine roots, I realized I'd been fooled again. Frankias are nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live on the roots of various trees and plants, especially those in stressed conditions where natural nutrients are limited. The different strains of Frankia tend to be specific to certain hosts. In this instance, the host roots belong to Alnus rubra (Red Alder), a tree quite common to the lowlands of western Washington. Experiments with Frankia inoculation have been done successfully to increase performance of Alder stands in poor soils, and although I'm not sure that was the case at this location, there certainly seems to be a lot of it, waiting to trick me into thinking I've found a slime mold, if only momentarily.

Penny Perspectives - Graphis Scripta

Day 99: Graphis scripta (Common Script Lichen) is as elegant as its scientific name sounds. The Latin words mean "inscribed" or "written," and it does indeed look like pencilled scribbles where it appears on bark. It is known to occur on a variety of trees (birch, beech and others), but here in the Pacific Northwest, it is most commonly found on Red Alder. As you can see, it is quite small, but when viewed under a hand lens, the unique elongated fruiting bodies reveal a longitudinal split. Where grain lines appear in the bark, these lirellae often follow the path of bark texture. What secret messages are hidden in Graphis scripta's code? Are they telling you to get outside and take a closer, much closer look at Nature?

Height Matters

Day 165: It's hard for me to make any progress along the trail when it's flanked by alder trees because that's where I'm likely to find one of my favourite lichens, the tiny (1/4" long) dashes of Graphis scripta. That said, I have made an observation which has so far held true: height matters. I always have to bend down to locate it. I have not yet seen it more than 3.5" from the ground regardless of exposure. None of my field guides mention this phenomenon and indeed it may not be universal. There are still a lot of alders out there which I haven't checked. I may never get where I'm going!

Valley Hues

Day 336: I've had out-of-state friends tell me that all the green in Washington makes them feel claustrophobic. Claustrophobic? Really? I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a place which is not green, and especially one where man-made colours leap at you at every turn. Green is meditative, placid. It soothes and restores even while it beckons the eye to pick out individual shades. One can never grow tired of greens. There are too many to ever be boring, from the rich, deep forest-green of shadowed ferns and mosses to the light spring-greens of new alder leaves, from the grey-greens of lichens to the blue-greens of river water flowing through a wooded canyon. I look out my window and see hundreds of greens along the margin where pasture meets forest, no two exactly alike. How can that inspire claustrophobia? It makes me want to go exploring to see how many more greens I can discover in my lifetime.

Needle In A Haystack

Day 134: Given the size of Graphis scripta, I knew that trying to document its occurrence in the Park was going to be a challenge. The only thing I had working in my favour was the knowledge that it likes to grow on alder (Alnus rubra). Kevin and I had spent some time examining alders up Kautz Creek last week with no success, so today, I hiked up the Westside Road to another location I thought might yield up my "target species." A deer was my only companion as I wove my way among Devil's Club and salmonberry vines, and I was just about to throw in the towel and was working my way back to the road when I thought to check the other side of a three-inch tree I'd already examined. There, threatened by concealment by bryophytes, was my prize!

These photos are the first I've taken since being given the go-ahead for a research project to document lichen species in the Park, and I don't have to tell you how jazzed I am at the prospect. But Graphis scripta was not my only find for today. Stay tuned! You'll see more in coming posts.

Penny Perspectives - Graphis Scripta

Day 119: At first glance, you could be excused for describing the bark of Red Alder (Alnus rubra) as a patchwork of white, grey and pale grey-green, when in actuality it is ash-grey to greyish-brown beneath a dappled surface. The motley coloration evidenced here in the "Pacific Northwe't" can be credited to a variety of finely crustose lichen species, among them the delightful Graphis scripta (Common Script Lichen). Its specialized apothecia (fruiting bodies) take the form of linear lirellae resembling pencil marks scribbled on a white canvas (the thallus of the species). Graphis scripta is the only script lichen common outside the southern US, and may be found on birch as well as alder within its PNW range. Presented here as a Penny Perspective, you may want to take a hand lens if you go hunting for it!