Cladonia Squamosa

Day 25: Squamous...that was what caught my eye: the sheer squamosity (and yes, that's a legitimate word) of this particular Cladonia. Oh, you're thinking I should define that in layman's terms. How about "scaly?" The squamules are the little leafy green bits and in Cladonias, and are usually found at the base with one or two notable exceptions. In those exceptions, they aren't distributed in a manner which allows the patchiness of cortex (skin) over medulla (inner portion) to be easily observed. Examination under a 40x hand lens revealed a few teeny-tiny brown apothecia (fruiting bodies) at the tips. Cladonia squamosa prefers the moist forests of the mid- and lowland areas of the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere in North America where it is widespread. Like most Cladonias, it exhibits a fondness for rotten logs, but within the genus, it is more sensitive to pollutants than some of its kin. It seemed to be enjoying the air circulation on a plateau 20 feet above Ohop Creek near its confluence with the Nisqually River.