#foliose lichens

[blogbirdfeather]

Foliose and crustose lichens - Líquenes foliáceos e crustáceos

Carnaxide/Portugal (29/10/2024)

[Nikon D850; AF 105mm Micro-Nikkor F2,8 with Nissin Circular Flash  MF 18; 1/250s; F25; 400 ISO]

[lichenaday]

Xanthoparmelia sublaevis

images: source | source

[goosehadfood]

I forgot to post this because I finished it at like 12 and then I was too busy looking at what cool lichens I could add to her and then I ended up far down a Wikipedia rabbit hole at 2 am.

Anyways lichens are literally so cool because they are like THE symbiotic relationship. Like the 2 components most lichens have (Algae and fungi) are so intertwined that they are considered their OWN SPECIES?!?! THEIR OWN FAMILY?!?! Like when most people refer to symbiosis they refer to things like clown fish and anemones, which is a good example but both can survive somewhat without each other. But the algae and fungi that make up lichens are SO intertwined that they can be considered species of their own and are often ONLY seen with each other! That’s like if clown fish and anemones became so reliant on each other that they merged and became their own species. THAT IS SO AWESOME PEOPLE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS MORE PLEASE IVE BEEN HOLDING THIS INFORMATION IN FOR SO LONG AND NOBOY CARES WHEN I EXPLAIN HOW COOL THIS IS.

Ok deep breath guys sorry you had to deal with that infodump but if anyone ever asks me about plants/fungi/algae I will never shut up they are my special interests and I will never get tired of them.

Anyways I added some Foliose lichen to sequoia’s back instead adding those web thingys. I also tried to add some flavoparmelia caperata on the knot near the end of her wing since it’s one of my favorite kinds of lichen. I also added some of this one type of mushroom that usually appears on older trees but I forget its name.

Hehe haha anyways I’m totally normal about plants you guys should ask me about plants because I am sooo normal about them it’s crazy.

[botanizing]

girl help people on iNat are calling anything grey and lumpy Physcia stellaris again

[i-am-the-plagu3]

Thought people might want to see these specimens growing on my fence:

[botanyshitposts]

tempted to make a lichen growth form tier list but in truth i appreciate all of them in their own ways.... fruiticose is lavish and interesting and genuinely kinda insane to me but only because i come from a place where all the lichens are crustose.... foliose lichens are also kinda wild and in my experience are laden with soridia on the edges and also sometimes can come out branched or tube-shaped or hairy on the edges which is wild, also i think its funny that they end up growing on top of each other on dense logs and stuff....crustose lichens have a special place in my heart because i grew up with them and i love how they cover the bark of trees and some of them are so flat you can barely tell its a lichen (Graphis scripta certified classic lichen moment)...... squamulose is a bit of a deep cut lichen moment but one of my favorite lichen species is squamulose (Psora decipiens ❤️💞🫶 spoiler alert: small and pink no less)......etc. just thinking about them today tbh

[futurebird]

The Special Words for the Growth Forms of Lichen

The special words for forms of lichen are almost as good as the special words for the textures of ants. The Foliose, The Crustose and The fruticose. Areolate, Filamentous, Placodioid, Byssoid and Calicioid Who can forget Cladoniform and the Squamulose!

And must we mention the Gelatinous and Leprose?

[wild-e-eep]

Ok so I’m a little bit obsessed with your blog already (as of discovering it 5 whole seconds ago) 😅

I do 3D scanning as part of my job, but with a structured light scanner. I’ve thought about scanning a foliose or fruticose but haven’t attempted yet - or seen anyone else try scanning lichen - until now. To get those results with photogrammetry really is good going!

Also the capsule lids on your sphagnum moss are insane! If you have any macro setup recs or tips you don’t mind sharing, I would love to hear them. I have a decent macro lens, but still trying to find the right lighting option for super close-up work.

Thankyou for the kind words. <3

Photogrammetry: I feel like lichens are not an easy fit for current photogrammetry tech, but flat photographs frustratingly limited for lichen identification - it would be *so good* to have examples that you can view in the round. So it's worth trying to make it work.

I really want to make 3d models of tiny things: liverworts and smaller lichens stand to gain the most in terms of accessibility from being shown in 3d.

Macro: taking things home instead of shooting in the field is new to me, but nearly all of my photos are still done with available light - either on a windowsill or in a side-room with a glass roof. My macro lens is 100mm which is long enough that the camera overshadowing the subject is not usually an issue.

This is the first year I've done much > 1:1 macro work. I'm not sure what happens in the winter - it will be too dark to do anything at all on some days, so maybe I will be looking at alternative lighting setups soon...

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Peppered Moth

Biston betularia

The peppered moth is a part of the family geometridae. It was first described in 1758 by Charles Linnaeus. This moth gains its name from its speckled coloration, which has been studied as an example of natural selection and population evolution.

Description This species has a short body with narrow forewings. The body and wings are the same white base peppered with black dots and irregular black lines. This speckled pattern may vary with some moths having very few spots and others having so many that they look as if they are black with white spots as opposed to white with black. In rare cases, the black on the wings and body is replaced with gray or brown and in even rarer cases the spots are a combination of brown and black/gray. These spots help the moth camouflage against lichen on trees.

The evolution of this moth had been studied extensively during the last two hundred years, which created the term “industrial melanism.” During the Industrial Revolution, air pollution killed off lichen and covered trees in soot. This caused moths with a black spots on white base (typica) coloration to lose their camouflage and die off due to predators. This caused a spike in population for moths with a darker coloration (carbonaria) because they had the camouflage advantage. Once environmental conditions improved, the lighter colored moths once again became the dominant coloration.

The male’s antennae are bipectinate, meaning it has two rows of rami going down either side of a singular flagellum.

Wingspan Range: 45 - 62 mm (≈1.77 - 2.44 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillar of this moth eats many trees, shrubs, and small plants such as Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Downy (Betula pubescens) and Silver Birch (Betula pendula), limes, sallows, poplars, oaks, Sweet Chestnut (Castanae sativa), Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Bramble (Rubus fruiticosus), Broom (Cytisus scoparius), Black Currant (Ribes nigrum) and Hop (Humulus lupulus).

They have a wide range, being found in China (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Fujian, Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet), Russia, Mongolia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Europe and North America. They prefer habitats of woodland, scrub, hedgerows, parks and gardens.

Mating Depending on its location, this moth can have one or two generations per year. In Great Britain and Ireland, the peppered moth has one generation per year, whilst in south-eastern North America it has two generations per year. They emerge from the pupea in late May to August.

The females attract males with pheromones, which are carried by the wind. Males follow the concentration gradient to find the female. The male guards the female from other males until she lays the eggs. The female lays about 2,000 pale-green ovoid eggs about 1 mm in length into crevices in bark with her ovipositor.

Predators This species is a night-flying moth, making the vulnerable to bats. The males in particular fly every night to search for a female while females fly only the first night.

To protect themselves from birds during the day, this species rests on lichen covered trees to camouflage themselves.

The day time resting positions of this moth have been recorded and studied. This study shows that the peppered moth prefers resting spots that are covered such as below where the trunk and a branch meet, the underside of branches, and leafy twigs.

Additionally, the study found peppered moths with a lighter coloration (typica) blend in better against crustose lichens rather than foliose lichens because birds can see ultraviolet light. The peppered moth reflects UV light while crustose lichens don’t, making them easier to pick out.

Fun Fact The caterpillars of the peppered moth resemble things in both color and size. An experiment published in 2019 done on the caterpillars of the peppered moth showed that the larva (even when blindfolded) could sense the color of the tree they live on and change their body color to match and/or would move to a different twig that was closest in color to their own body.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation, Max Planck Institute)

[mushroominaforest]

what mushroom comes to mind when you think of something durable

Hmmmm… hard to say!!!

Probably one of the year round shelf mushrooms! They’re a lot tougher than the typical mushroom, they can survive the cold winter just fine, and are really hard to break. Maybe the tinder polypore or the conifer-based polypore. There is something to say for crusts, but I’m not sure! If I was allowed to say non-mushroom things, molds are definitely pretty durable.

Lichen for sure comes to mind, they’re able to grow almost anywhere on earth, and are even able to survive in space by entering a stasis! Lichens are super cool, they’re able to produce enzymes that can digest rock because of their fungi part, and are capable of photosynthesis because of their algae part which makes them very successful organisms. Oh right, I should explain that lol, while they’re classified as fungal-adjacent organisms, they are a symbiotic relationship between a fungi and an algae that worked so well it just became a whole new organism! Some reproduce as a lichen, but some reproduce as an algae and a fungi individually. They’re also often just like, really pretty colours and patterns lol. There’s three different types of lichen, foliose, fruticose….aaaaand I’m rambling again oops never mind lol

I’m gonna cut myself off before I yap more about lichen, but uh. Anyways. Hope this answers your question!

[blogbirdfeather]

Rhizocarpon geographicum et al

Serra da Estrela/Portugal (12/11/2024)

[Nikon D850; AF 105mm Micro-Nikkor F2,8 with Circular Flash Nissin  MF 18]

[lichenaday]

Hello there! I was out on a mushroom foray this morning and came across a lichen with an interesting rusty red color. I've never seen one quite like it and was wondering if you may have any ideas as to the species. The color is somewhat uneven, maybe it was originally a different color and changed due to some kind of stress? It was found growing on a fallen branch just off a woodland trail in southeast Texas. The underside of the thallus was black. Love your blog, thank you for making such informative posts!

Hi! It looks like some sort of Parmotrema (based off of lobe shape and the distinctive cilia around the margins) but the color is super weird. Likely this lichen is dead and what you are seeing is the result of secondary metabolites in the thallus breaking down or reacting to solar radiation or some other compound (some Parmotremas are used for making red/purple dyes). Or it could be the result of a lichenicolous fungi, or a stress color. I can't know for sure, but I have seen old, dead Parmelioid lichens turn a similar color when they die--just usually not that bright! Very cool! Thank you for sharing and for the kind words! And happy foraying!

[drhoz]

#2450 - Sticta subcaperata

A foliose epiphytic lichen found in humid forests on both islands, from sealevel to subalpine areas, in medium to low light. Olive-green to lettuce-green thallus lobes and bright yellow-orange apothecia.

Taranaki Goblin Forests, New Zealand

[mycoblogg]

FOTD #130 : common greenshield lichen! (flavoparmelia caperata)

common greenshield lichen is a foliose lichen in the family parmeliaceae. it often grows on rocks & the bark of trees around the world :-) it is notably quite resistant to air pollution.

the big question : can i bite it?? this lichen is non-poisonous !!

f. caperata description :

"the common greenshield is fairly easy to spot : it looks somewhat like a leaf of lettuce glued to the side of a tree. its upper surface is usually pale yellow-green, but it becomes a deeper green when wet. the edges of the common greenshield are broken up into rounded lobes. these lobes are smooth when the lichen is small, but soon become wrinkled in medium to large specimens. towards the centre of the lichen, you will notice irregular rough patches."

[images : source & source] [fungus of the day : source]

[anamateurnaturalist]

Our Microbial Ecology professor is offering us extra credit if we can find three different kinds of lichen. My lab partners were unsure where to find lichens but the answer is simple, everywhere! The slightly more complicated answer is that they grow in the places that other plants and fungus can't grow, with rocks and tree bark being the most common. I was able to find all of these, in my own yard in about 10 minutes.

There was a colony like this one growing on the foundation of our house but I didn't want to disturb it so I was glad when I found this lovely specimen on a rock in our landscaping.

This was also on the same rock, it isn't a great picture but you can see the little rhizones that are used to attach themselves to the rock.

The reason lichens can grown on rocks and other inhospitable surfaces is because they are actually a symbiosis of two different organisms and there partnership is what makes it possible. Each lichen consists of mycobiont, a fungus, and a photobiont which is either an algae or a cyanobacteria. (a cyanobacteria is a kind of bacteria that can do photosynthesis.) The photobiont can produce energy through photosynthesis and the mycobiont can break down the substrate (yes, even rock) in order to get other nutrients that lichen needs to survive.

In fact here's another lichen I found on a rock in our landscaping. If you click on it to see the full sized image you can actually see the little grains of sand from the lichen breaking down the rock.

Keep in mind that this picture was taken at high magnification, to give you an idea of scale, here's the same lichen (or at least a very similar one) growing on a cement window sill at my kids school.

You can see how it might be overlooked as just some discoloration. If you've ever at an old cemetery, you'll see that a lot of the oldest headstones are pretty much completely yellow or orange, that's lichens.

This one was growing on a dead stick that had fallen off our apple tree. The round things are the apothecia, the reproductive structure of the fungal symbiont, that's why they often look like tiny mushrooms.

It can be very difficult to identify lichens to species because even lichens with different symbiotes can look very similar. If you were to disregard the apothecia, the one above looks a lot like the first lichen but the fact that they are on different substrates is evidence that they are different kinds. They aren't even the same growth form the first one is lobed and this one is foliose. I do own the keys to identify them, but I have yet to actually attempt to.

Lichen are also very particular about their habitat. The population on the apple tree (left) is very different from the population on the Cottonwood tree. (right)

Disclaimer: all of these lichens are very common in this area and were either on loose rocks in our landscaping, bark that was already peeling off the tree or on dead branches. You should never collect lichens if you aren't confidant that they are well populated and it's best not to damage their substrate to collect them

Disclaimer 2: I am not a lichen expert by any means, the information here is correct to the best of my knowledge.

If you're interested, I have turned some of these pictures into desktop backgrounds, they can be found here:

[sidetracked-by-nature]

I suddenly found myself hyperfixated on nature last week. So, I'm starting a new blog to dump all of my identifications and learnings! I've taken a particular interest in fungi, trees, and birds, so I expect I'll be posting quite a bit about that. Here's to growing closer to the world around me!

pictures in this post:

1. A baby plant growing inside of an Eastern redbud in my front yard! (Cercis canadensis)

2. Some neat lichens (unsure of specifics, but there's a mix of crustose and foliose) on a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)

3. A branch of leaves of a Hidcote St. John's Wort shrub (Hypericum hidcoteense)