Backyard Mystery

Day 121: I'll give you the punchline first: I have no idea what this is, although I think I can safely say it's a lichen. The shape suggest that it's a Cladonia, and the broken upper cortex (the outer layer of the thallus) would seem to support that assumption. However, the algal layer is poorly developed, making it almost snow-white. At first I thought it might have been fungal because I thought I was observing peridioles in the cup. At least that's what they looked like through the camera lens, but I was not satisfied that I was seeing them, so I went back in the house for a magnifier. I never think to grab a kneeling pad when I'm excited about finding something strange. No, I went back out and knelt right down in the soggy, cold moss so that I could put my eye to the glass for an up-close-and-personal look. The inner surface appeared grainy...oh, you know...like broken lichen cortex, d'uh!...and then I looked further down the stipe where the lower cortex was revealed in reddish patches. But muddy knees couldn't pay a better dividend than that. I will simply have to keep an eye on the area over the next few weeks to see how it matures. Oh, by the way, if you're ever over for a visit, don't disturb any of the little stakes poking up in various places around my yard. Those are markers telling me I need to follow up.

Lichens Vs. Mosses

Day 98: Ignoring the Douglas-fir branches, one of these two clumps of green matter is a plant and the other one is not. Do you know the difference between lichen and moss? Bryophytes (mosses) are a simple form of plant life, with structures which fulfill the same functions as the leaves, roots and stems of more well-developed plants. Mosses contain chloroplasts throughout their bodies, while lichens only have chloroplasts in the algal layer on their outer surfaces. On the other hand, a lichen is a symbiotic organism comprised of fungus, algae/cyanobacteria and yeast, each component providing something vital to the survival of the whole. The fungus gives the lichen its shape and aids in moisture retention, while the alga/cyanobacteria provides photosynthesis and contributes nutrients in a form the fungus can utilize. The role of the yeast in lichen is not fully understood, although some research suggests that it helps ward off disease. Although many lichens resemble mosses in outward appearance, they are truly quite different.

Lichenomphalia Umbellifera

Day 142: You could be excused for thinking that this is a mushroom, but in fact it is the fruiting body of a lichen. Lichenomphalia umbellifera may be listed in your handy-dandy field guide as Omphalina, but that taxonomy is now considered out of date. Lichenomphalia is unusual among lichens in producing this type of fungal outgrowth. Most fertile lichens form apothecia in which spores are encapsulated within asci (saclike structures) as opposed to spores contained in basidia along the gill margins as is the case with Lichenomphalia. The thallus (body) of Lichenomphalia is comprised of small granules or flakes of the alga Coccomyxa. It can be seen in the photo as the pea-green crust on the rotting wood. Viewed from the bottom, the gills of Lichenomphalia will be seen to be decurrent (i.e., running down the stipe) and widely spaced, looking ever so much like a faerie's umbrella. This lichen is fairly common in the damp forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Lichenomphalia Umbellifera

Day 151: Yesterday, we talked about an ascomycetic fungus (i.e., a fungus which reproduces like a lichen), so today, we'll switch it around and talk about a basidiomycetic lichen (i.e., a lichen which reproduces like a mushroom). I told you this was a confusing field. Now you should have a better grasp of what I meant.

Now as you know, lichens are a symbiosis of fungus, algae and yeast. The algae come in two forms: green algae and cyanobacteria ("blue-green algae"). They are the photosynthetic partner in the ménage à trois. One type or the other is always present in a lichen, and is generally obvious in the colour even though some orange and yellow lichens might make you doubt my word. This is germane to the discussion, as you'll see shortly.

You're walking down the trail, looking for cool things, and your eye is caught by a cute little creamy white or tan mushroom growing out of an old stump. It looks like a little umbrella. You can see that it has gills if you look at the underside of the cap, so your immediate assumption is that it is a fungus. You're only partly right. Lichenomphalia umbellifera produces a fruiting body which resembles a mushroom in more ways than just visually. Its spores are produced externally by basidia, specialized cells on the margins of its gills, as opposed to most other lichens whose spores are produced in internal asci.

Now you're asking, "But what makes this a lichen? It looks like a mushroom to me." That's because you're not looking at the whole picture. The thallus (the main body) of Lichenomphalia is that pea-green and eminently algal substance coating the wood from which the "mushroom" grows. Fruiting body and thallus are parts of the same whole: a basidiomycetic lichen found fairly commonly on decaying stumps in the Pacific Northwest.

Things are not always what they seem to be at first glance.

Author Unknown

Day 110: Well, this is a little embarrassing. However, when I stand back and really look at it, it's also hilarious.

While out on a four-mile walk on the relatively new and extraordinarily ugly levee trail in Orting yesterday, I was searching for anything noteworthy for my daily posts. I thought I'd struck paydirt when I found a script lichen unlike anything I'd seen before, multiple examples of it occurring on several young Red Alders on the bank of the Puyallup River. I could not remove a sample without damaging the bark. Nor did I have a hand lens, so I took close-up photos of several different examples and conducted a visual analysis with my nose to the tree. The lirellae (the type of apothecia unique to the scripts) seemed to be incised into the bark rather than rising above it. I knew that some species have lirellae which lie beneath the bark surface, so I was sure that would narrow the field when I began searching for an ID. I kept thinking, "They look like dirty thumbprints in wet paint...how very odd!" and reviewing my eidetic memory files, I couldn't recall having seen anything with that morphology in either Brodo or McCune. A diligent page-by-page search of both field guides confirmed my fears: this one was going to be problematic. In the end, I gave up and for the first time in well over a year, sent photos off to lichenologist extraordinaire Katherine Glew, explaining that "I just can't make this one fit in anywhere." I had a note back from her in my morning email clarifying the authorship of the unusual script: "This looks like grazing by a snail or slug."

Live and learn. I do not get to add another lichen to my Life List, but at least now I will be able to recognize the marks of snail teeth. Whodathunkit?

Trypophobia

Day 30: This will sort out which of my readers are trypophobic! The term describes an irrational dread/fear of small holes or bumps, and Lecanora pacifica's apothecia certainly qualify as the latter. Tiny, they rarely exceed 1.2mm, so it takes a good eye to find them even though they are common on alders in the Pacific Northwest. The lichen thallus (body) is white or yellowish, and the apothecia may appear in a range of shades from pale pinkish-yellow to almost black. Some disks may exhibit more than one colour. I never walk the Bud Blancher trail without checking this tree. I guess I must not be trypophobic.

It's A Jungle Out There

Day 24: "Leaf" them lay! The fall and subsequent decay of healthy leaves provides nutrition and shelter for a wide variety of small ground-living organisms, and if left to decompose naturally, serves as a mulch against weeds. The coarser materials add texture to soil. If you don't like the appearance of a blanket of leaves, hit 'em a lick with a mulching mower. If that doesn't fit into your urban lifestyle, go ahead and rake them, but compost them over the winter and add them back into your garden in the spring. Make good use of Ma Nature's gifts!

Buttered Lichens

Day 13: Another wonderful present from far away arrived in my mail yesterday. A Parkie friend was visiting Michigan and had asked if I'd like some specimens of local lichen. I said yes, and asked her to look for species she had not observed in the Pacific Northwest. She replied, "I'm trying to get you some orange ones." Visions of Xanthorias and Candellarias danced in my head like so many sugarplums (Teloschistes being beyond my wildest dreams), and then she sent a photo. I burst out laughing. "Anne," I wrote back, "don't try to mail those. They'll go to goo in the post. Those are jelli fungi." "Too late," she replied. "I already mailed them."

Fortunately, she sent the parcel via priority mail. The fungi (Tremella mesenterica, commonly called "Witches' Butter") had only just begun to biodegrade, and were restored to health after spending the night outdoors. I spent yesterday evening examining samples of the lichen under the dissecting 'scope and determined from the sparsity of rhizines, absence of apothecia and granular soredia arising "from pustules" (per Brodo) that the specimen was one of Michigan's commoner species, Flavoparmelia caperata. Also known generically as "Greenshield," Flavoparmelia will grow on almost any bark substrate and may even attach to rock. Anne's specimens were taken from pine and maple. They are unlikely to survive in the Pacific Northwest, but I've given them the option to colonize on Acer.

Yes, I Said Lichen

Day 181: The taxonomists have struck again. Only recently renamed Lichenomphalia umbellifera (formerly Omphalina umbellifera) is one of the most unusual lichens you may encounter. Wait, did you say "lichen?" Yes, I did. It is one of very few species of lichen which carries out its reproductive process in the same manner as a mushroom, i.e., with spores which grow out out of cells (basidiomycetes) rather than being contained within them (ascomycetes). The thallus (vegetative body) is actually the pea-green crust you see on the wood. The "mushroom" is the fruiting body. For once, I applaud the taxonomists. Now perhaps with its new name, this LICHEN will get the respect it deserves and will no longer be dismissed as "that little tan mushroom."

In Nature's Hands

Day 98: A lesson from a lichen:

I am in your hands, Mother.
You brought me into this world
And you have kept me thus far in your protection.
You have fed me and sheltered me;
You have taught me and guided me;
My heart and eyes have opened because of you.
I am not more or less than what you made me,
And no greater or lesser than any other of your many parts.
The care with which you hold a raindrop
Reminds me to pass my remaining days
In kindness and consideration of all around me,
And not to forget that we,
Human, rock, bird, tree and all,
Are equally your children.

Omphalina Umbellifera, A Lichen

Day 184: Despite its appearance, Omphalina umbellifera is technically not a mushroom. It is a lichen, one of only three lichen genera in the US known to have a basidiomycete as the fungal partner (as opposed to an ascomycete). What this means in layman's terms is that these lichens reproduce via different types of cells (asci versus basidia). It also means that poor little Omphalina is often disregarded by lichenologists when in fact it probably deserves closer study than many of its ascomycete cousins. Look for Omphalina on well-decayed ends of downed trees and have a little fun with your hiking friends when you explain that it's not a mushroom.

I've Taken A Lichen To You

Day 124: Only one problem...when I say it, it rhymes with "kitchen." But it's the thought that counts! Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers and lichen fans!

PS. It took quite a bit of searching to find a heart-shaped colony. I have yet to do the taste-test, but I believe this is Variolaria amara, Bitter Wart Lichen (formerly Pertusaria amara). Brodo advises, "A single sorediate bit, when chewed and allowed to remain in the mouth for a few seconds, produces a very bitter taste that lasts a lot longer than one would like. Fortunately, the substance is not poisonous!"

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!

Multicolored Rim Lichen, Lecanora Pacifica

Day 117: If it hadn't been for that Pygmy Owl stealing the show, this would have been yesterday's post. It too is a "life list sighting," the first instance of Lecanora pacifica (Multicolored Rim Lichen) I have found. In fact, it is the first of any rim lichen I've seen, and I could find no other examples of it on any nearby tree. It is purported to be the most common Lecanora on the west coast, occurring on a variety of smooth-barked deciduous trees. Its host in this case was Alnus rubra (Red Alder) and the tree was a lichen-lover's paradise, six or eight species all occurring within the bounds of approximately six square inches of bark. The largest of these apothecial disks was no wider than 1.5 mm.

Looking At Longmire Lobaria

Day 87: With the return of precipitation to the "Pacific Northwe't," many lichen species such as this Lobaria are at their best during the months of winter. As you already have learned, the plants we call lichens are a symbiosis of fungal and algal components, i.e., two species in a cooperative relationship which benefits both. On their own, fungi are not capable of photosynthesis and rely on other means to obtain nutrients. In lichens, this is where algae come into play. Algae are the photosynthetic partners ("photobionts") which "feed" the fungal member of the symbiosis.

Lichens are paradigms of survival. During periods of low precipitation or drought, they dry to a point that observers might assume they were withered and dead. However, when the rains return, they spring back to health readily, "greening up" in a delightful display. The photobionts responsible for this change of colour include green, blue-green or brown algae singly or in combination, so a wide range of hues is possible, from dark brown-green to bright chartreuse. The winter forest is far from being drab and dull. Just look to the lively, lovely lichens!

A Tangled Web

Day 50: I thought I had this figured out, but when I got a small specimen home and began examining it, I was forced to rethink my identification. Faced with two new options, I subjected a section to chemical analysis. It tested negative for a chlorine reaction, eliminating Alectoria sarmentosa from the running. Still, it didn't quite fit the brief for Ramalina thrausta because the tips of the finer branches lacked the typical curl. Apothecia were very rare (a characteristic of that species); I examined hundreds, literally hundreds of examples in the Longmire compound and only found two clumps where apothecia were present, and they were within inches of each other behind Macy Dorm. Admittedly, Brodo (the "forty-pound field guide") only contains about 30% of North American lichen species, but I would think that as common as this Ramalina is at Longmire, it must occur elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. I hesitate to classify it as R. thrausta, although I suspect that's what it is.

Footnote: I felt silly asking about a common lichen, but this one can be tricky. I contacted Dr. Brodo who said he believes it is Alectoria sarmentosa (I should have done a KC test instead of a C). He suggested checking the spores under the microscope. I did, and they seem to confirm the identification but for one thing: they're blue, not brown. We're still hashing it out.

Tee Garden

Day 49: We all know that the game of golf originated in Scotland, right? And Scotland is very like the Pacific Northwest in climate, i.e., damp and rather grey. Although I don't know this for a fact, I would guess that it has an abundance of lichens, and surely among them you could find a number of representatives of the Cladonias. It's a whimsical thought to be sure, but imagine if you will a kilted clansman about to place his leathern ball on the green. His head turns. He's spotted a narrow stalk topped with a cup-shaped form of the exact size to hold the ball. History is made as our redoubtable Scot nestles his gamepiece into the bowl of a specimen of Cladonia fimbriata where it is held securely until he pelts it mightily with his blackthorn and sends it sailing into a gorse thicket, there to remain until the final days of Planet Earth.

I found the mother of all tee gardens on my Nisqually Land Trust beat today. I'd stopped by Ohop Valley to check on the trees we planted a few weeks ago and was delighted to see that a second crew had been in to place protective plastic sleeves around each one. A piece of rotten fence drew my attention, and when I looked up from the single specimen I had just photographed growing on its length, I noticed another rail, its sunward vertical side bearing hundreds of C. fimibriata podetia. I removed one single example to bring home in order to confirm my identification (inset shows the finely farinose soredia), and although it was spongy at the time I picked it, two hours later it had dried to the point that it felt wooden. It was still too flexible to be used as a golf tee but rigid enough to inspire speculation as to the origin of the device. Aye, an' 'tis not so unreasonable to think, eh?

Taxonomic Nomenclature

Day 44: Taxonomic nomenclature is not a static science. As research progresses (particularly in genetics), species need to be reclassified, not only within a genus, but sometimes into a different genus entirely. Sphaerophorus venerabilis got off easy. It was formerly known as Sphaerophorus globosus, which in fact is more descriptive of its knobby apothecia than its present name. It is a beautiful and graceful thing, and invariably when I find it, I think, "Wow! What's that?" only to discover upon arriving home that I've bookmarked the page in Brodo and left a note to myself regarding the change in its taxonomy. Today, it surprised me once again. I literally stumbled across a downed branch heavily populated with Lettuce Lung (Lobaria oregana), and while I was admiring it, I noticed the Sphaerophorus. "Wow! What's that?" I said to myself, not realizing I was revisiting the phrase, and then took a dozen or so photos from different angles. I also noted at least two species of Liverwort on the same branch. Don't get your hopes up. There is no comprehensive field guide to the liverworts of the Pacific Northwest.

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.

Cladonia Squamosa

Day 14: Walking along a short trail in Black Lake Meadows (a small wetland area south of Capitol Mall in Tumwater), I checked up short at the sight of a mound of very scaly little lichens covering a stump of unknown wood no more than a foot high or wide. My first thought was that the lichen was Cladonia bellidiflora, the most squamous of the Cladonias, but on closer observation, I saw that the apothecia were a pinkish-tan colour rather than brilliant red. That feature alone ruled out bellidiflora, so the next fifteen minutes were spent on my knees in the wet grass under light rain trying to obtain a photo from an angle which showed the full morphology of what I believed to be Cladonia squamosa, although I had reservations due to the abundant apothecia.

Updating: I've had one of those "D'uh!" moments. I should have recognized this species immediately because it's quite common in the Pacific Northwest. I'd just never seen it fruiting quite so abundantly. It is Stereocaulon paschale, "Easter Lichen." The remainder of my description has been revised to reflect the corrected identification.

For the uninitiated, "squamous" means "scaly," referring to the pale green shingles on the stalks (podetia) of this species. The apothecia are the fruiting bodies, those little knobs along the upper margins.