Day 143: It's taken me three days to make a final determination as to the identity of this unusual Cladonia based on field characteristics alone. I lack the reagents which would give me conclusive results for this particular species, but given that it does not conform to all the physical characteristics any other option, I have placed it as Cladonia ecmocyna, which in any event is highly variable. Some squamules are visible on the podetia; podetia are pointed and frequently browned; the apothecia are infrequent and brown; narrow cups do form at some podetial tips.
I believe I may have mentioned this before, but I think one of the things which attracted me to the study of lichens is the exotic vocabulary which accompanies them. Words like "pruina" or "pseudocyphellae" don't crop up in just any conversation, but if I'm given the chance, you'll hear them fall from my tongue as smoothly as if they were poetry. In fact, if you were following along behind me secretly on a walk in the woods, you'd hear me muttering them to myself as I survey the surrounding lichenscape, describing it aloud to no one in particular. If you tailed me long enough, though, you might hear the one botanizing phrase I most enjoy using, the precise and highly technical expression I voiced when I encountered the (presumed) Cladonia ecmocyna in Longmire Campground. Nothing excites me more than having a chance to say, "What the hell is THAT?"
