Day 1: It seems fitting my newest lichen discovery should take the honour of opening this tenth year of daily natural history posts. I don't often travel outside my own environmental niche, but when I have occasion to do so as I did yesterday, I make a point of exploring the regional ecosystem. I'm a scientist. You can't expect me to enjoy hitting the shops or tourist attractions. No, you should look for me in the woods somewhere. Look down, because I'll probably be on my hands and knees. That's exactly what happened when I found this Hypogymnia. There was only one piece of it, dropped from some branch well over my head, but it shouted at me visually because it just Didn't Look Right according to my mental field guide. As I examined it more closely, I made note of the distinguising features: flatter lobes than most other Hypogymnias, knobby collections of soredia at the lobe tips (what had caught my eye in the first place), rough lower surface. It took me a while to sort it out when I got home because it had undergone a taxonomic change and was in Brodo under the old genus Cavernularia, but eventually I came to Hypogymnia hultenii, a coastal species. Made sense, because after all, I was on the Olympic Peninsula. My day had been made, as they say, and there was Morris dancing yet to come. Happy New Year!
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