The Joys Of Rediscovery

Day 92: After several days of suffering with the flu, this morning I felt sufficiently recovered to take a very short walk out into the yard to hunt for a "blog shot," i.e., my photo for today's post. I made a circuit around the house and had gotten as far as Big Doug's nearest root when something caught my eye. "Oooooh," I said. "What's this?" It was certainly nothing I'd seen in the yard before, so I took photos where it lay and then moved the specimen to better light for the image shown above. In sunlight, I could see that it was yellowish-green, not light grey-green as it had appeared in the shade. Knowing that I'd have to inspect it more closely to make an ID, I brought it in the house and set it down beside me while I referred to Brodo. The magnifier revealed some telltale structures along the lobe margins while other minor details narrowed it down to three species. I ruled out two, settling on Platismatia tuckermanii...waitaminit...Platismatia tuckermanii? Isn't that the lichen Patty sent me from Maine? Ah, the joys of rediscovery! Yes, referring to my pictures from last fall, it was the identical specimen. Boy, did I feel silly! What can I say? I've been sick. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Best Present Ever!

Day 6: I knew I had a surprise coming in the mail from my sister-of-the-heart Patty, and saw by its tracking progress that it was due for Wednesday delivery. Patty had warned me that it was perishable and fragile, so I was in a hurry to get home from work to liberate it, whatever it might be. I slit the tape and opened the box to find another box made of clear plastic, and in it a mass of...LICHENS!

Y'know, I'm a cheap date. It doesn't take much effort or expense to entertain me. I was going to leave the project for morning and better light, but I was just too curious about the foliose species which had caused me to blurt "Rag-bag!" before I'd even felt the specimen. Okay, it resembled our local limp-washrag Platismatia, but there were some distinct differences which told me it wasn't the same thing. I spent the next 45 minutes with Skunk squashed under the 40-pound field guide on my lap and a lighted magnifier pressed tightly to my eye as I analyzed the black pycnidia along the lobe margins and searched for pseudocyphellae. At last I was content with an identification: Platismatia tuckermanii, named for lichenologist Edward Tuckerman who likewise lent his surname to Mount Washington's famous Tuckerman Ravine. He also has a whole genus of lichens named for him: Tuckermanopsis. There are still a couple of other species to sort out in this best-prezzie-ever, but I think they need to hydrate a little longer.