Lichens at Priestpoint Park

Spent about an hour walking around the trails at Priestpoint, keeping an eye out for lichens, and came back with about eight different samples, plus an unlichenized ascomycete.

Afterwards I spent some time identifying what I had found.  Tentatively, I seem to have picked up:

Peltigera membranacea or neopolydactyla.  I'm sure it's one or the other, but I haven't looked at enough of these things to tell the difference.  The ID hinges on distinguishing between tomentose veins and rhizines, and the degree to which the veins protrude from the underside.  Maybe with time I'll be able to figure it out.

Cladonia carneola.  This one I'm a little more sure of.  Dentate cups (the margins of the cups appear toothed) and brown apothecia.  The specimen I took (was growing on the back of a park bench) had only one, incredibly tiny apothecia, which I at first took for a parasitic lichenicolous fungi because it resembles a small white stemmed, brown capped mushroom.  However, McCune and Geiser have a wonderful picture in their book.  Perhaps spring quarter I'll be able to properly identify this specimen with spot tests.

Lichenomphalia umbellifera.  This was surprising. As I walked the pathway down Ellis Cove I passed a huge rotting log with what appeared to me to be very pale yellow Xeromphalina -type fungi growing prolifically.  The color made them stand out and I made a collection.  I'm very glad I took some substrate too!  Looking through Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, I noticed an entry for Lichenomphalia, and it turns out to be one of the few Basidiomycetous lichens!  Also turns out to be fairly common, but still.  The clincher for me, aside from the coloration, decurrent, wide gills and crenate cap margin, was the deep, slimy green substrate from which the fruitbody grew from.  Sure enough, the small pieces of wood I grabbed along with the 'mushrooms' was coated in a dark green slime.  Maybe under the microscope I'll be able to distinguish some of the thallus characteristics.  

Not a lichen but still an ascomycete, I believe I found Pseudoplectania vogesiaca or one of its look-alikes.  I started noticing this fungus a few days ago when I was walking around campus searching for EEON plots I may be working with in the spring.  It was the only fungus aside from Trametes versicolor, Fomitopsis pinicola and the random Mycena, that I noticed.  When I saw it today I decided to take a couple and figure it out.  

Still have about four more specimens to go through.  Possible Hypogymnia, Cladonia, Usnea and Ramalina or Bryoria.    

Twig Lichen

Took the dogs for a walk after reading some articles on relationships between substrate chemistry and lichen diversity in northern hemisphere coniferous forests and decided to pick up one of many twigs on the ground covered in what I believe to be Xanthoria polycarpa.  No soredia, and definitely not growing on rock.

Lab Day - Aqua Regia

After the initial hype and buildup surrounding the preparation, use, and disposal  of aqua regia, I was disappointed by how innocuous the actual process was.  No horrific burns.  No screams of pain.  To an observer it would have looked as if we were carefully pipetting water into test tubes. Alas, the aqua regia component of lab is complete, and soon we'll be off to the ICP-MS!

Key Council 2010 - Slime Molds

Was going through my camera and realized I had some pictures from a foray this fall with the PNW Key Council.  The mushrooming was good but I was captivated by the different slime molds (Myxomycetes) we seemed to be finding.  These were two of the more colorful varieties; never was able to identify them.  Both were growing on fallen logs, coastal area near Deception Pass, WA.

EEON Soil Cores

Just remembered I had these photos from a couple weeks ago on my phone.  We took soil cores, and these happen to be the ones from our 'lowland' riparian site.  You can make out the dark organic top layer and its easy to see the alder leaves at the soil surface.

Currently working on getting these soils into a form amenable to ICP-MS analysis, meaning acid-digests. Yay!

Bryophyte Flora of North America

Used the Bryophyte Flora of North America along with the USDA plants website to annotate and update some new moss and liverwort additions to the Evergreen herbarium.  It's continually being updated with current family and genus names.

http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/BFNA/bfnamenu.htm

Lichen Community on a Stick

I know its not a bryophyte, but I'm honestly more interested in lichens, and I ended up spotting this branch with at least five different ones, ranging from crustose to fruticose.  I grabbed it primarily because of the crustose apothecia (the small orangish discs).  Curious to compare lichen ascospores to what I remember about your 'normal', unlichenized ascomycete spores.