Ramalina Farinacea, "The Dotted Line"

Day 25: Ramalina farinacea's enchanting common name "the dotted line" refers to the numerous soralia found along the margins of its lobes. The second half of the Latin taxonomy should ring a bell in anyone who has ever eaten farina for breakfast, the cereal product marketed under the familiar brand name, "Cream of Wheat." My personal opinion is that Cream of Wheat is only marginally more edible than sand however it is served, and my experience in having been compelled to eat it on rare occasion makes "farinacea" a word I'm unlikely to forget. Funny how those associations are made. This thoroughly farinaceous Ramalina is relatively common in the Pacific Northwest. Some members of the genus have perforate, lacy lobe tips; they may or may not have grit.

Lecanora Muralis

Day 15: This specimen would have left me puzzled, but its identity (Lecanora muralis) was provided by Katherine Glew during a "lichen walk" in one of Seattle's cemeteries yesterday. According to some sources (particularly those in the UK), it is most often found in urban environments where deposits of grit and ash on various substrates provide it with an easy means to take hold. It is unusual among Lecanoras in that it is lobate, i.e., the outer edges of the rosette are scalloped by small, loosely attached lobes much like those of the Parmelias. However, the apothecia (disk-like fruiting bodies) give it away as a Lecanora. This specimen was roughly 1.25" across and at least for me, it was one of the most interesting finds of the day.

Lichenologists In The Mist

Day 14: Roughly 14 lichenologists with varying degrees of expertise from beginner to professor gathered this morning on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill for a field trip among the fog-wrapped gravestones of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Mt. Pleasant is one of the oldest cemeteries in Seattle (and for my east-coast friends, that means some of the people buried here were born in the early to mid-1800s), and unfortunately most of the headstones have been kept remarkably lichen-free. Even so, we found several dozen different species (small colonies for the most part) of Parmelia, Hypogymnia, Chrysothrix and others. My favourite was a relatively uncommon lobed Lecanora which I'll feature in an upcoming post. This ancient horse chestnut tree was a veritable gold-mine despite its rather barren appearance on first glance. Used to the lush and verdant lichens which festoon the trees in Mount Rainier's lower forests, I was amazed to discover a whole new world of micro-lichens beneath my hand lens. Even though I didn't learn anything new with respect to identifying individual species, my eyes were opened to the wealth of nearly invisible lichens populating the urban environment.