365Caws is now in its 16th year of publication. If I am unable to post daily, I hope readers who love the natural world and fiberarts will seize those days to read the older material. Remember that this has been my journey as well, so you may find errors in my identifications of plants. I have tried to correct them as I discover them. Likewise, I have refined fiberarts techniques and have adjusted recipes, so search by tags to find the most current information. And thank you for following me!
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Icmadophila Ericetorum, Faerie Barf
Day 61: For the most part, I tend to commit to memory the Latin nomenclature for vascular plants, fungi and lichens, but once I had seen the common name "fairy barf" applied to Icmadophila ericetorum, I could not dismiss it from my mind (and believe me, I tried). That said, I prefer an alternate spelling ("faerie") for this lichen and the weakly pink apothecia and pastel green thallus which characterize it. Since lichen common names are not standardized like the majority of those applied to vascular plants, I feel justified in taking a small liberty to afford a slight measure of dignity to the species. Bottom line? Icmadophila is one of my favourite lichens. It deserves better than it's been given.
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