Best Rock Ever!

Day 183: My lunchtime walk today yielded up the Best Rock Ever! It holds BOTH species of Pilophorus side-by-side (clavatus on the left, acicularis on the right), and to further add to its merits, it's on the trail on which I'll be conducting a lichen walk during Bio-Blitz.

My Bio-Blitz walk will cover about a dozen lichen genera, and then our volunteers will be sent out on their own, cameras in hand, to photograph as many lichen species as they can find, with an eye to publishing them on iNaturalist. However, as a secondary goal, they will be specifically documenting Pilophorus in the hopes of getting a better picture of the time-frame in which this pioneer lichen colonizes "freshly exposed" rock surfaces. In my personal experience with P. acicularis, "freshly exposed" may range from 20-60 years.

In my original plan, I would have been taking people to two sites approximately a mile apart in order to view both species. The discovery of the Best Rock Ever just made my job enormously easier!

Pilophorus Comparison

Day 142: Matchstick lichens are relatively uncommon, and only two species occur in the Pacific Northwest. Both of them can be found within a five-minute walk of the Longmire Administration Building. They are among the first to colonize freshly broken rock such as that shattered in laying roads or building trails. Pilophorus acicularis (Devil's Matchstick, top) can often be found growing on vertical surfaces, its hair-like podetia topped by shiny black, almost round apothecial knobs. Pilophorus clavatus (Tapered Matchstick) presents apothecia which are longer and more club-like than those of its cousin. Both species are quite small (usually under an inch long) and may be difficult to spot even when the viewer is in close proximity.

Pilophorus Clavatus, Tapered Matchstick Lichen

Day 15: How many times have I walked around the Trail of the Shadows, my eyes sweeping the surrounding area for rare and elusive species? How many times have I gone right past this particular rock, never seeing what was waving to me from its nearly bald pate? If I had not been searching for one particular solitary mushroom, only to be distracted from my task by another lichen nearby, I would not have been bent over at the right angle to the light or in the proper position to spot these minuscule and sparsely distributed threads.

This, dear readers, is a cousin to my favourite lichen (Pilophorus acicularis). It is Pilophorus clavatus, also known as Tapered Matchstick, common nomenclature derived from the "burnt" appearance of its apothecia. The tallest of these little buggers is only about three-quarters of an inch long, and you'd have to cluster four or five of the stalks to approximate the diameter of the lead in a pencil. We're talking TINY, and of course perfectly camouflaged against the rock. Like P. acicularis, Tapered Matchstick is a "pioneer" lichen, growing only on freshly exposed, non-calcareous rock. It is much less common than P. acicularis, occurs at higher elevations, and is more tolerant of deep shade. All of the Pilophorus species are nitrogen-fixers, a biological advantage if you're going to grow on "bare" rock or in poor soil.

Once I'd got this specimen in my photographic "bag," I spent some time looking for any other Pilophorus-supporting rocks in the vicinity. Nope, no luck, but now I'm on high alert. If they're out there, I'll find them.