Pellia Epiphylla

Day 250: The things we do for science! A week ago, during a Team Biota field exploration into a new pocket ecology, I discovered a liverwort I had not seen in the Park previously. The area where it occurred was what I describe in my journal as "down in a hole," i.e., in a brushy minor drainage lined with tangled young alder, under fairly well closed canopy (read, "in a dark bit of forest"). I prefer not to use flash when photographing my subjects and, to tell the truth, the option never crossed my mind. Instead, I laid my pack on the wet ground and braced the camera against it. Shooting a long exposure resulted in a less-than-clear image of the tiny sporangia (spore capsules, inset). I did think to take a sample which I examined under the microscope at home to determine that my new liverwort was Pellia epiphylla. That said, I wanted better pictures, so day before yesterday, I returned to the hole alone in the rain. The mosquitoes had hatched in droves, and while I knelt in the wet taking pictures, they attacked through the open space at the back of my brim cap. I got better photos of Pellia, but the few fragile, thread-like setae and sporangia which remained had been beaten down by the rain. It looks like another trip to the hole is on next year's calendar...with bug spray.