Bellidiflora Up Close And Personal

Day 202: I recently purchased a snap-on macro filter thinking that I'd be able to get more detail for the field-guide style shots I present to my readers. I was only half right. While shooting macros does bring you "up close and personal" with your subject, the "field guide" aspect is lessened due to the diminished depth of field which excludes any habitat features one might use in making a solid identification. A good zoom keeps that frame of reference by allowing foreground and background detail when desired. Personally, I find out-of-focus foreground material distracting (the moss in this shot, for example). In macro photography, it is difficult to avoid when the camera is placed at a side-on angle. That said, a photo like this one could be useful in a classroom situation where the instructor wants to define terms: apothecia, squamules, podetia, primary and secondary thalli. Add a couple of arrows, and you have a PowerPoint slide for Lichens 101.

Cladonia bellidiflora would make a good poster child for lichen-speak. The bright red apothecia appear at the tips of podetia thick with ragged squamules. Even without arrows, you can recognize those parts.

Kinnickinnick, Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi

Day 200: The dainty bells of Kinnickinnick (emphasis on the syllables is the same as "a candlewick") emerge as rosy pink buds and fade to a lightly blushed white as they mature. Also known as Bearberry (Latin: uva-ursi), this member of the Manzanita family forms a dense ground cover in dry-soil conditions and can be found from near sea level to the alpine zone in western Washington. Berries develop in the early summer, and although they are edible, they are rather tasteless and seedy. You will sometimes hear Bearberry called "Indian tobacco," a term less often used in the Pacific Northwest than elsewhere although the leaves were smoked by members of some local tribes.

Pilophorus On Parade

Day 193: With the acquisition of a new macro lens/filter, one of my first targets was the colony of Pilophorus acicularis at Longmire. These little fellers are my new "favourite lichen," not only for their cute black hats, but also for their propensity for growing straight out from the side of a vertical rock. Seen from a distance of five feet, you'd take them for grey moss where they cluster thickly. Seen from two feet, they put you in mind of a mutant Chia pet. A few specimens grow upright in this location, although I'm sure that they'd rather be doing horizontal stretches with their compeers, the yoga practitioners of Lichenopolis contending against gravity in pursuit of grace, a grey ballet of black-capped figures on a rocky stage.