Pilophoron Acicularis

Day 189: This post is to serve as a reminder-to-self: the proper term is Pilophoron aciculare. In fact, it has been so recently updated that even the database I use to keep current with taxonomic changes has not yet revised the nomenclature. I got caught with my britches down when I handed in an update to the names of lichens found in the Park; our Plant Ecologist had checked a different reference where he found the gender-correct Latin.

A lot of taxonomic updates are just that: grammatical improvements on an earlier name. It's a bit of a bother, but it has to happen on somebody's shift, and it might as well be mine. It puts me in mind of how the attempt to convert US measurements to metric failed when people rebelled against what would have been a much easier system, preferring to lumber on with what was comfortable rather than make the effort to improve. I railed against "willful ignorance" at the time, a futile protest but one which served to firm up my own resolve to keep abreast of other progressive revisions. To this day, it baffles me that anyone would choose to stand still or even move backwards in this regard.

So: Pilophoron aciculare, my best colony, has only recently emerged from cover of snow at Longmire, and it's healthier than ever. Thousands of little blackheads cover the vertical face of a rock immediately beside the road to the Community Building, and others are cropping up both north and south of it. Perhaps this was the parent colony; I don't know. In any event, this rock is as woolly with them as if it were a Chia pet, not a one longer than an inch and a half. Anyone who walks with me in that direction gets the whole lecture!