priscilla's Favorites

• epipetric/saxicolous/on rock
• smothered in tiny squamules

Cladonia petrophila is noted for very rarely producing podetia, instead reproducing almost entirely by squamules.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2806933#metadata_info_tab_contents

Apothecium present. Consortium of Lichen Herbaria (LichenPortal) reports that apothecia have not been seen on Parmotrema hypotropum nor on Parmotrema hypoleucinum. So, this is a first, apparently. A discovery produced by a walk to the mailbox. Such is life.

On a branch of Pinus taeda, Loblolly Pine.

Photos 5, 6, 7 - apothecium detail & hydrated condition from rain today (06 January 2024)

2nd observation with apothecia present, the apothecia are clearly perforate: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196691805

Last night,
in a span of twenty minutes,
we received 3.9 inches of rain.

The little creek,
behind our house,
rose more than 5 feet,
and amidst an hour of roaring,
piled a huge gravel bar
just downstream a sharp bend.

Too,
the floodplain was stripped of last autumn's leaves.
The edge of the flood marked by an emphatic line,
of bare soil,
to which clung plants that survived the deluge.

This photo was taken ten minutes or so before the arrival of Gary Perlmutter (Herbarium Associate with the North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill), who upon arrival accompanied me on a walk down the river. The reason I took this photo was that the orange color had attracted my attention whilst photographing a Physcia americana on the same tree. I did not then know what the orange color was due to.

However, serendipity intervened when, whilst on our walk, Gary Perlmutter pointed out an orange-colored lichen on an Ilex opaca (American Holly), and explained that it was in fact a Script lichen who's photobiont was extruding beyond the surface of the fungal thallus. Once again, thank you Gary!.

Only after I arrived home did I realize that what I had photographed earlier was the same lichen species having its host phytobiont doing the same thing.

On bedrock in the channel of the Haw River, and at a position/height that is inundated for many months of the year.

Immediately to the right, in the photo, is the water of the river, beneath which more individuals of this lichen reside on rock that is probably perpetually below the water's surface [A separate observation will be made for these submerged individuals, and a link posted here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163523814].

3rd photo shows thallus color in the hydrated condition (doused with river water).

4th photo shows the lichen, and to the right the submerged rock with more individuals that likely exceedingly rarely experience desiccation/are normally perpetually submerged.

I think? With the patch of red under the chin but overall still brown head, I’m guessing this is a juvenile male who has started molting into adult plumage? I read that yellow-bellied usually hold their juvenile plumage through the winter while red-naped usually molt in autumn, and I saw on the local birder listserv that the yellow-bellied reported at this park last week is young with a messy pattern, so I’m guessing that’s this guy? But what’s with the white eye ring?

On the margins of the photo are scant views of Heterodermia echinata the base of which the Pixine Lichen has begun to overtake. The 5th photo shows both lichens. Their different growth forms are evident.

Yesterday I made an observation of several thalli on a rock, none of which, alas, appeared to have an apothecium.

I returned today, and lo and behold, found a solitary thallus with a solitary apothecium. Now, I think, the ID is quite solid.

see secure link: https://www.waysofenlichenment.net/lichens/Porpidia%20ochrolemma