Letharia Vulpina

Day 256: Team Biota ventured somewhat outside the Park boundaries yesterday to hike to Sheep Lake and Sourdough Gap from Chinook Pass, the trail slightly east of the Cascade Crest. Joe had been to the lake only a few days earlier and had found a lichen he knew I'd have to pursue: Letharia vulpina, aka "Wolf Lichen." We have two species of Letharia in Washington and both are primarily "east side" dwellers. The second species (L. columbiana) usually bears an abundance of fringed apothecia which are so distinctive that Northwest Lichenologists uses the lichen as their logo. I was hoping we might find both on our seven-mile trek.

And there's a point right there: Washington Trails Association's website claims the gentle hike to Sourdough Gap covers a mere five miles. Trusting in them, we left our lunches in the truck. Using my new GPS which tracks your actual route, we had covered seven miles by the time we got back at 3 PM. The largest discrepancy occurred between the lake and the pass. WTA claimed it was 0.75 miles one way. My GPS showed 1.4 miles.

That said, we found Letharia vulpina in abundance, noting that it occurred primarily on dead cedars and alpine fir. Brodo refers to it as preferring barkless branches, and indeed this was what we observed, although we also found it growing on bark. We did not find the second species, but felt we were much more than compensated by the number of "new" vascular plants we discovered, including a couple of species I had not seen before. I still have a few left to identify, but many will be featured in this blog over the next week. Stay tuned!

Letharia Vulpina

Day 235: When you're standing a good 15 crow-flight miles west of the Cascade Crest looking at a specimen of Letharia vulpina and the trees around you have no sign of the lichen on their bark or boughs, the word which springs immediately to mind is "transport." How did it get there, only 10 feet from the roadway? I have only observed this lichen from the Crest eastward, and although it is on the master list of lichens which occur in the Park, I don't know where any herbarium specimens may have been collected. You'd think that in an area where the snow is still receding, you might see other bits around it in the pockets of debris accumulation. There were none. One reasonable theory would be that it was carried to the location on a snowplow blade, hitchhiking until it broke free and was cast off to the side. There is plenty of evidence suggesting this method works as a means of seed-dispersal for vascular plants. Needless to say, I'll be paying closer attention to the trees above this particular section of Stevens Canyon Road from now on. If it's there, I'll find it.

Letharia Vulpina

Day 240: Coming back from Yakima, I had already called for a "botany break." A little later, my companions decided to stop at the viewpoint for a lovely terraced waterfall and we were all heading down the trail together when a clump of distinctly chartreuse lichen on the ground caught my eye. All thoughts of scenic views evaporated in an instant, and as Maureen and Kosette proceeded to the overlook, I dropped to my knees to study it. Then looking up, I saw more colonies of it on the bark of several trees, much better specimens than the sorry and sodden example I had first noticed. However, the ones on the tree were well out of reach even with my arms extended over my head. Glad that I had left the macro filter on the camera, I snapped this photo without being able to tell if it was in focus or not. A sample taken from the clump on the ground confirmed the identification: Letharia vulpina, one of the "wolf lichens" used to dye textiles.