Lichenscape

Day 104: I love my fence, although it's a source of great frustration. It supports an astonishingly varied lichenscape, mostly Cladonias which unfortunately are very difficult to differentiate. Still, the utter lushness of the colonies give me reason to pause beside the posts on all but the rainiest of days, hoping to find one visual clue to aid in identification. This particular post holds Cladonia parastica among others, that in itself unusual since the species has not otherwise been recorded in the Pacific Northwest. How they arrived alongside my driveway is a mystery, but they respond quite convincingly to any chemical test I've been able to perform. Some day, I may ship a specimen off to an expert in the field, but for now, I'll be content to admire their spires and towers, a city in microcosm along the route to my mailbox.