Scleroderma Areolatum, Earthball

Day 336: It has been quite a while since I had a botanical puzzle which required breaking out the microscope, but with several look-alike Scleroderma species, the determining factor for an identification rested upon the spores. I've been watching the growth of some odd "puffballs" (clarification will come later in this post) under the contorted filbert for over a week now. They were much larger than any I'd ever seen, three inches or so in diameter. One finally developed a single apical pore (also diagnostic in making a correct ID), venting its spores through the opening. I settled in with my references, but found myself frustrated by the similarity of several species. One book specific to the Pacific Northwest suggested Scleroderma verrucosum, but checking for possible synonyms in a more reliable source told me that species does not occur here. I got out a bigger metaphorical "shovel," knowing that I'd have to do deeper digging if I was to solve this mycological mystery. In the end, I learned that the spores were key. If they were spiky like the covid virus, the "puffball" was Scleroderma areolatum. If they were smooth, I might as well give up. Fortunately, at 1000x magnification, the spikes were visible, and what I had was not a puffball, but an Earthball, somewhat unusual and not previously recorded in Pierce County. I love it when I find botanical mysteries in my own back yard!

What's That Fiber?

Day 154: Today, we're going to play a little game called "What's That Fiber?" I was curious as to whether my fingers could distinguish the bamboo/rayon in a mixed roving, so I put some samples under the microscope. There are two cellulose fibers here (as in "plant-based") and wool from two different breeds of sheep (Coopworth and Merino). Cellulose fibers are made by pulping plant material and treating it with chemicals to break it down into a solution which can be extruded, and therefore they tend to be smooth. On the other hand, wool is a protein-based fiber with a rough cortex (outer layer). As opposed to other sources such as rabbit or camel, sheep's wool varies in diameter from breed to breed. Merino is classified as a fine wool, rated at 15-25 microns; Coopworth comes in at 30-39. By comparison, an average human hair measures 70 microns. Cotton fibers average from 11-22 microns, rayon for fabric production falls between 8-25. Given this information, you should be able to identify the bamboo, cotton, Merino and Coopworth fibers shown above. In the top and bottom rows, magnifications are 40x, 200x and 800x. The second row shows a "mixed" fiber at 40x and 200x, with the two fibers isolated in the third row at 800x. Are you ready? Go! (Answers below.)

(Top row: cotton; Second row, mixed; Third row, bamboo and Merino; Bottom row, Coopworth)

Egg Hunt

Day 6: While attempting to confirm that the big, floppy mushrooms which spring up in my yard so prodigiously at this time of year were indeed Suillus caerulescens, I made a tissue slice which captured perfectly an ovoid form which I believe to be an insect egg. It is far too large to be a spore, which of course was what I was hoping to find. Although considered edible, Suillus flesh is generally too full of bugs to be worth the bother, at least in my personal experience. "Wormy" is the word most frequently used to describe the condition, although in fact the little wiggly things are the larvae of minute flies. Were that not enough to put me off eating the bounty at my doorstep, S. caerulescens is one of the blue-staining species which cause abdominal distress in some people but not in others (sidebar: I'm the "one in a million" who always gets the undesirable side effects from prescribed medications, and am unwilling to chance it with mushrooms). S. caerulescens is typified by large, angular pores, a viscid cap, and a preference for growing in Doug-fir detritus. Other Suillus species may be associated with larch or various pines. And for those of you who are trying to get a handle on Latin, "caerulescens" is related to the English word "cerulean," a lovely shade. The root word is "caeruleum," i.e., "blue."

Physcia Adscendens

Day 89: Well, I can't count this one as a life-list species because I was introduced to it on a field trip with Katherine Glew, but it was the first specimen of Physcia adscendens I've found on my own. It's recognizable by helmet-shaped lobe tips as well as having "eyelashes," and although you can't tell from the photo, it is quite small. The lobes are under half a millimeter wide, and the whole lichen does not exceed two centimeters in diameter. How did I find it? When I am out shopping as I was today, I always try to park next to a tree so I can find my car again. Cars are so hard to identify! Most of them are silver-grey in colour, and 99% of them have four black tires, white lights in the front and red ones in the back. I do not have a Field Guide to Common Vehicles, and since I don't usually carry my GPS when I go in town, I frequently spend an inordinate amount of time studying license plates in the hopes of coming across the distinguishing feature which sets mine apart from the others. And yes, I have tried to get into one belonging to someone else. Fortunately, there were no consequences attached to that event. On the other hand, a tree is something I will recognize, even from a distance. I pulled up to a small ornamental which was lavishly covered in green and gold lichens. "Xanthoria!" I said, "But what's the grey-green stuff? That's not a Parmelia." I took the main photo in the composite above and then broke off two small pieces in different stages of development. I sat for a few minutes in the car examining them before driving away just in case I needed a larger sample, and that was when I discovered the "eyelashes." Thinking back on recent finds, I assumed Parmotrema, but when I got home and put the specimens under magnification, I realized I was off base. Eventually, having gone forward and backward through several dichotomous keys in both Brodo and McCune, I narrowed it down to two choices: Physcia adscendens or P. tenella. The shape of the soredia-bearing lobe tips and absence of apothecia clinched it: adscendens, predictably the more common of the two. I'll never forget that tree now, even if I can't remember where I put my car or if the person I just spoke to had a moustache or wore glasses. Priorities. You just gotta keep 'em straight.

Ramalina Thrausta

Day 80: What a great way to start the new year! I picked up a lichen specimen on my way back from Sulphur Creek Falls yesterday after deciding that it was a Ramalina of some sort, and therefore a new genus for my unofficial lichen life list (or rather, that I found on my own instead of having one handed to me by an expert). Ramalinas are characterized by small perforations in the thallus; some species are so perforated that they look like lace. Although I couldn't see the holes with my naked eye, other details clued me in: both upper and lower surfaces were uniform in colour and the branches were flattened. I thought I might have trouble keying it out, but its growth habit and size quickly narrowed the options. Under the microscope, the perforations were visible, as well as a few very small patches of soredia. Bingo! At least I'd thought to take a picture of the tuft in the field, because by the time I got done picking it apart, it qualified as "specimen destroyed during analysis." May the joy of discovery be part of your life in 2019!

Analysis And Determination

Day 38: Once upon a time, this mushroom was a Suillus. Field guides separated Suillus from Boletus by the shape of the pores on the underside, i.e., Boletus had small round pores and Suillus had open, irregular pores. It was easy to remember (and of course we like that), but then the scientists took a closer look at the dividing line between the two genuses and decided that pore shape wasn't an accurate indicator. Many of the species formerly placed in Suillus were shifted into Boletus as a result. This particular 'shroom was one of the victims of taxonomic flux, and I had to reset my head to accept the new nomenclature.

Science is always moving forward. Advances in technology put DNA sampling within the reach of more professionals, and suddenly the poor botanist would tuck in at night with one species name, only to find that it had changed by morning. The phenomenon wasn't limited to species. Whole new genera were created when DNA revealed that some species we thought of as siblings turned out to be fourth cousins by marriage three times removed. It was as if we discovered that our old friend Mary Smith's brother John was really her grandfather's ex-wife's nephew's daughter's husband. The family tree hadn't just been pruned; it had been cut back to the base and was growing into a many-branched bush.

Yesterday, I had to unlearn this mushroom again. Fortunately its distinguishing visible cues haven't changed, although you do have to use a microscope for the final analysis. As far as this one is concerned, you can line out "Suillus" or "Boletus" in those old field guides. Under its new nomenclature, Xerocomellus chrysenteron can be identified by its cracked, tomentose (velvety) cap, its red-tinged stipe base, its irregularly-shaped open pores, its tendency to bruise blue, and lastly, the telling oval spores which differ from the blunt-ended (truncate) spores of X. truncatus.

Calibration

Day 34: While it's a fairly simple matter to measure a dissection specimen or other object seen under low magnification, measuring under high power is another story. Note the slide in the foreground. Inside the circle in the center, there is a line which is almost invisible to the naked eye. Seen through the microscope, it reveals itself to be a ruler one millimeter in length. This ruler is divided into 100 smaller units of 10 micrometers each. Since we don't want to lay a specimen directly on this slide (somewhat confusingly referred to as a "stage micrometer") and in any case, would find it impossible to prod a teeny-tiny sample into the proper location, we are going to need another tool. Enter the eyepiece reticle.

The eyepiece reticle is equipped with a grid in its lens, also divided into 100 sections. If you install the reticle and use it to observe the stage micrometer, you'll probably discover that the divisions are very different from those in the reticle and don't align. By figuring out the ratio between the stage micrometer divisions and the reticle divisions, a little simple math will provide a conversion to use in conjunction with the eyepiece reticle. The stage micrometer is only used to calibrate the microscope.

When using a different objective, the magnification factor changes. Therefore the ratio of stage micrometer divisions and reticle divisions changes accordingly. We must recalibrate for each objective, and if we have more than one microscope, we'll have to calibrate them as well. In the upper right, I have shown the two sets of divisions. Although you can't see it in the photo, using the 40x objective of my brightfield microscope, 30 reticle divisions equal 75 stage micrometer divisions, i.e., 750μ, therefore a single reticle division is equal to 25μ. In lichen identification, a diagnosis sometimes hinges on the size and/or shape of ascospores. To give this perspective, the spores of Boletus edulis (one of my favourite edible mushrooms) are 12-17μ in length by 4-6μ wide.

Tools Of The Trade

Day 29: My little home botany lab is equipped with a variety of specialized tools, mostly the hand-held (and less expensive!) versions of mechanized professional devices. Some of them require an extra degree of skill in order to get good results, and that's particularly the case with the microtome. Small specimens must be embedded in paraffin before mounting in the jaws, but larger pieces such as a snapdragon stem can be used without additional preparation. A straight razor is drawn across the glass plate to level the material, and then by turning the dial on the base, the specimen may be advanced in increments of 0.01 mm (10 microns). A second slice with the razor will yield a section of tissue suitable for viewing under the microscope.

The implement with the gold handle is also a measuring device. It is called a "mini-tool" and the spade end is 5 mm. wide, with each millimeter marked off in 10 divisions. With its markings barely visible to the naked eye, this tiny "ruler" is placed under the microscope objective at lower powers to determine such things as cell length/width. For higher powers, a reticule and/or stage micrometer are required, but that's for another post. Scientists have the coolest toys!

Scoping Out Boletus Chrysenteron

Day 11: Not all identifications can be made with the naked eye. According to one field guide, "Boletus truncatus is a common species in conifer forests and can only be separated from B. chrysenteron by looking at the spores, which are truncate on one end." Right, and that's why I have a microscope...not that I'd be eating any blue-staining boletes. Some of the staining species are purportedly edible, but "may cause reactions in certain individuals," so I'm not taking any chances. Still, it's nice to be able to put names on the things you find growing in your yard, so when Boletus somethingorotherus popped up under my big Doug fir, I decided an analysis was in order. I fully expected my 'shrooms to be B. truncatus and studied images of the spores of both species while my sample was shedding onto a slide overnight. This morning, Mr. Boletus' true identity came to light when the 'scope revealed thousands upon thousands of perfectly non-truncate material. Boletus chrysenteron it is, spores at 1000x magnification.

Swallowtail Scales

Day 94: As I mentioned a few days ago, finding material for posts during the gloomy months of winter is no easy task, especially when I'd like to present a glimpse into the marvelous world of Nature. However, today it occurred to me to pull out my stereoscope for a closer look at a butterfly wing. Where did I get my subject matter? I have a small collection preserved in a Riker mount, traffic fatalities otherwise undamaged by impact.

It might surprise you to know that butterflies are both hairy and scaly. Both types of structure afford protection from predators. The hairs are a tactile deterrent (imagine a bird with a speech balloon above its head reading, "Ew! Furry!") whereas the scales shed readily if the butterfly runs afoul of a spiderweb. You might think of butterflies as being brightly coloured, but in fact, their striking hues are not due to pigments but to refraction of light within the microstructure of the scales. The feathers of Steller's Jays and many other bird species give the impression of being coloured, but in fact, most birds are brown despite how they appear to human eyes. The same principles apply to the wings of a butterfly. Mother Nature will have her little jokes on us, fooling us into believing we're seeing reds and blues where none exist. It's enough to make you wonder if anything is as we perceive it.

Footnote: I had this photo ready to go, but just happened to notice a feature in the new PaintShopPro called "text cutter." I couldn't resist experimenting. The letters were cut from the butterfly wing in the photo with just a few clicks!

Totally Tubular

 Day 52: A number of very similar tube lichens grow in the Pacific Northwest, and a dissecting microscope and chemical testing may be needed to differentiate them. For the most part, the Hypogymnias feel somewhat like fragments of balloon, i.e. rubbery and limp, and will stretch significantly without tearing. The lobes are hollow, as can be seen in many cases by close observation of the tips (upper left). The lower surface is black, and the upper surface may be flecked with black pycnidia as well. The apothecia are generally large and obvious, and may be perforated at the center (lower right). The Hypogymnias occur commonly on conifers including Douglas fir. Absence of smaller lobules along the margins of the main lobes suggests that this specimen from Longmire is Hypogymnia apinnata (as opposed to H. enteromorpha which exhibits that characteristic).

Sectioning For Spores

Day 52: I am extremely grateful to Dr. Irwin Brodo (author of the forty-pound field guide, "Lichens of North America," and Ernie to his friends) for his patience in instructing me how to section lichen apothecia in order to reveal the spores. I can now do a much better imitation of a microtome than previously. We have not positively identified this specimen as of this writing, but evidence suggests that it is Alectoria sarmentosa, a common species often found growing on Douglas Fir. The sample on the left was scraped from the apothecial disk of a dry specimen; the one on the right is fresh material. My new microscope is proving to be a valuable tool in furthering my knowledge of lichens.

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?

Comparative Lichenology

Day 41: East meets West for today's essay! A friend recently sent me two lichen specimens from Maine in the hopes that I could identify them for her. One of them was a member of the generic category of "Old Man's Beard lichens," specifically Usnea filipendula (Fishbone Beard, top photos). It put me in mind of my favourite among the Usneas, Methuselah's Beard (U. longissima, lower photos), so I thought it would be fun to present them paired, and thus took a short hike to a location where longissima is abundant.

As you can see, Fishbone is much more compact and delicate. Longissima grows in graceful strands up to ten feet in length. Filipendula branches abundantly, and Methuselah's Beard consists of threads on a central stem, much like a Christmas garland. A microscopic view reveals that isidia (grain-like reproductive units which detach easily from the thallus) are present on both specimens, but are more numerous in the case of filipendula. Both species are excellent air-quality indicators. Sensitive to even small amounts of pollution, Usneas only grow where the air is pure.

The Hole Story

Day 39: Another puzzle submitted to me by my sister-of-the heart Patty resolved itself after some reconstitution of the subject matter in a sealed container with a piece of wet paper towel. You have to love lichens for their resiliency! While Patty was in Maine recently, she sent photos which led me to a tentative identification in this case of Cladina mitis, Green Reindeer Lichen. What I was not expecting was that she would also submit a physical specimen so I could take a closer look. When it arrived in the mail a few days ago, it had withered substantially, as had a small sprig of an Usnea. Examining it under the 'scope, it was hard to tell how many podetial tips were present, curled in on themselves as they were, but I did observe what I thought was the "gaping hole" between the tips, making me wonder if it might be Cladina stellaris instead (pointer shows the hole). However after further moisturizing, the tips have opened out into threes, ruling C. stellaris out. Given the other physical characteristics, I'm reverting to my initial identification of Cladina mitis. As for the Usnea, the jury is still undecided, but I believe it is U. filipendula, Fishbone Beard Lichen, one of the generic category of "Old-Man's Beard" lichens.

See? Urchin Spines!

Day 38: Seriously, it doesn't take much to keep me amused. Just give me a jar of sand from an "exotic" east-coast location and my microscope, and I'll be occupied for hours.

See those little green bits at the end of the built-in pointer? Those are sea-urchin spines, almost invisible to the unaided eye and barely visible under a hand lens. Under the microscope, they're revealed as textural beauties, ridged longitudinally. Occasionally, you can catch one in cross-section, and in those moments, you might think you'd found a faerie's zucchini dinner. Proportionally, this "sand" seems to be an almost equal mix of rock and shell fragment. A riot of colour, unlike the Pacific Northwest's drab grey grit, bits of opalescent mother-of-pearl and purple mussel-shell catch the eye amid the softer tones of cream and tan.

Sand was not the only thing in my mailbox yesterday. The friend who sent it included two lichen samples as well. See? Presents don't have to be pricey to be fun!

Growing Sporadically In Eatonville

Day 26: The best word-play is that which occurs accidentally, the speaker blithely going on, oblivious to what they've said. Such was the case many years ago when I remarked to my husband during a drive that I was observing clusters of mushrooms growing sporadically alongside the road. Now I am a fan of Tom Swifties, but I uttered those words without the slightest thought to making a joke. Bruce cracked up, and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out why he was laughing. Since then, I've repeated it, waiting to see which of my friends will catch on, but it will never, ever be as good as that first time.

In any event, that's how the Licorice Ferns grow in Eatonville: sporadically, and mostly in association with Big-leaf Maple. I've included a pair of views through the microscope to show you how "sporadic" Polypodium glycyrrhiza is. In fact, the largest of the spores measures roughly 4.5μ by 6μ. The righthand photo in the inset includes the spore capsule as well as a few dozen spores.

A Closer Look At Zygo

Day 24: Don't have houseplants because you're allergic to pollen? Zygocacti shouldn't be a problem. As you can see from the inset, their pollen grains are smooth and hairless, unlike those which cause many allergies. In fact, many plants' pollen grains look like weapons of warfare; lances, arrowheads, caltrops, maces, morning-stars. Zygocactus pollen looks more like dimpled oranges or slightly misshapen golf balls.

Yes, I couldn't resist taking a look through the microscope when I discovered that Picotee had a fully-open blossom this morning. Of the several colours of Zygo in my collection, she is almost always the first to open, and a showy thing she is for the dismal days of November. She is likely to be followed by Yellow, and like any parent, I don't want to say I have a favourite child, but those two are strong competitors. In any event, I will have a nearly continuous display of Zygos between now and early January, and with any luck at all, Hatiora will join the assembly. I wonder if Hattie's pollen will be a different shape?

Pod People

 Day 21: I got quite a surprise when I looked through the microscope yesterday morning. I had been out in the yard gathering various items of interest, and on my way back to the house, the Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum) at the end of my carport caught my eye. I figured the spore capsules and/or spores would be too opaque to view without top lighting, but I scraped a few off with an X-acto knife and put them in the well of a concave slide. After adding a drop of water to separate them, I placed a cover slip over the well and put that slide on the bottom of the pile, fully expecting it to be a total flop when I put it under the 'scope. It turned out to be my best slide of the day, and I spent the next hour exploring the world of the Pod, although no spores were in evidence.

Without a mechanical stage, it's very difficult to get an object in the center of the field of view on the higher magnifications. First off, you need to move it counter-intuitively, i.e., a nudge on the left side moves the material to the left, not to the right as you might expect, and a nudge on the side toward you moves the material toward you rather than away. Second, the slightest tap may be enough to send your subject entirely out of the field of view, in which case you revert to a lower magnification and try centering it again. A mechanical stage overcomes this by allowing more regulated movement of the slide (I've ordered one). Fortunately, these wonderful spore capsules were large enough to be easily found again. What amazing structures!

Puzzling Protozoans

Day 20: I strongly doubt I will ever be able to identify more than a handful of protozoans (if that!), but I did determine that the one in the bottom photo was making its way across my field of view powered by its flagellum ("tail"). That's the feature which determines the level of organization under which this type of one-celled critter fals: Flagellates. That's not to say all flagellates are related to one another. It is simply a means of categorizing them by their means of motion. Ciliates are another such organizational level, propelled by hundreds of tiny "hairs" (cilia) on the exterior of their cell walls. I seem to have a nice population of them growing in a rooting jar in my kitchen window. Why the difference? Maybe they like the warmer indoor temperature. I'm not likely to get very technical when it comes to describing these microscopic critters, but I hope you will enjoy seeing my discoveries from time to time.