Fungi & Lichens

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False Turkey Tail Fungus (Stereum ostrea)

 

 

one identified 10 to go. Had a great hike yesterday in Hanging Rock State Park

here is a lovely and yes DD, a tasty looking one :P

I dunno looks kinda fuzzy to me...and to me fuzz = mold.

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Golly! I'm slow to get to things!

[Turtle]

...

Golly! I'm slow to get to things!

Turtles are even slower. Looks like it took me 2 years to get back.

 

Anyway, got a new camera after Christmas and with no flowers around I turned to the lichens again. My previous pics were lost with the gallery change -and my bad attitude- but if called for I may be able to restore them. Meantime, here's some newbies. I'm pretty lame at ID's as my method is to search 100s of pics & try to find a match. Add to that, the experts are still wrangling over how to classify lichens and you get what you pay for here.

 

I make this to be Tube Lichen - Hypogymnia tubulosa. It's growing on a branch in a place where there are branches. ;)

 

[Turtle]

So after going all beautyishy, I'll wax all sciencyishy.

 

Cryptogamic Covers Take Up Huge Amounts of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

New research from the Max Planck Institute examines the role of cryptogamic covers in the global exchange of oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Covering approximately 30% of soil surface that includes the surfaces of plants, the scientists found that algae, mosses, and lichens take up approximately 14 billion tons of carbon dioxide and fix approximately 50 million tons of nitrogen per year.

...

Cryptogamic covers are responsible for about half of the naturally occurring nitrogen fixation on land and they take up as much carbon dioxide as is released yearly from biomass burning. These new findings will help to improve global flux calculations and climate models, in which up to now the carbon and nitrogen balance of the cryptogamic covers have been neglected.

...

[Turtle]

I think this is a Xanthoria. Found lots of it growing on branches of small trees/shrubs along a suburban trail. I hear tell a dye can be had from it.

 

[Racoon]

So after going all beautyishy, I'll wax all sciencyishy.

 

Cryptogamic Covers Take Up Huge Amounts of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

 

 

Not to mention a huge business of people who blast the moss,lichens off your roof and driveway using pressure washing and chemicals ...

Edited March 3, 2015 by Racoon

[Turtle]

Not to mention a huge business of people who blast the moss,lichens off your roof and driveway using pressure washing and chemicals ...

The article does make some mention.

...In cities, the presence of algae, lichens, and mosses is not considered desirable and they are often removed from roofs and walls. It is, however, totally unfair to consider these cryptogamic covers, as the flat growths are referred to in scientific terms, just a nuisance. ...

I agree a new awareness is a good thing, however it does not mean we should stop all removal of mosses and lichens from our structures. They can degrade materials by their holdfasts and collect water that adds weight beyond design specs. The quicker structures degrade and fail, the more often they must be replaced and the ecological impact of such replacement may outweigh that of removal. Mosses & lichens on sidewalks can also be hazardous when wet and/or frozen due to slipperiness so it's practical to do some removal where safety is improved.

 

Nonetheless I would agree that the willy nilly destruction of these fascinating living things is to be discouraged and slowing down to a stop to have a close look is to be encouraged. I invite you to live vicariously through my photos. :)

 

Crowned Pixie-cup - Cladonia carneola

Growing on fallen branch aside suburban trail.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Turtle

[Turtle]

A liverwort for Moontan. Found growing on a live tree -Alder I think- along the same trail as the last pic. (Taken ~ 2 weeks ago) By all means if I get an ID wrong or don't have one and you do, chime in. :)

 

Also called hepatics, liverworts have fairy recently been reclassified as a separate Division.

 

Liverworts

Relationship to other plants

 

Traditionally, the liverworts were grouped together with other bryophytes (mosses and hornworts) in the Division Bryophyta, within which the liverworts made up the class Hepaticae (also called Marchantiopsida).[7][26] However, since this grouping makes the Bryophyta paraphyletic, the liverworts are now usually given their own division.[27] The use of the division name Bryophyta sensu lato is still found in the literature, but more frequently the Bryophyta now is used in a restricted sense to include only the mosses.

 

Another reason that liverworts are now classified separately is that they appear to have diverged from all other embryophyte plants near the beginning of their evolution. The strongest line of supporting evidence is that liverworts are the only living group of land plants that do not have stomata on the sporophyte generation.[28] Among the earliest fossils believed to be liverworts are compression fossils of Pallaviciniites from the Upper Devonian of New York.[29] These fossils resemble modern species in the Metzgeriales.[30] Another Devonian fossil called Protosalvinia also looks like a liverwort, but its relationship to other plants is still uncertain, so it may not belong to the Marchantiophyta. In 2007, the oldest fossils assignable to the liverworts were announced, Metzgeriothallus sharonae from the Givetian (Middle Devonian) of New York, USA.[31] However, in 2010, five different types of fossilized liverwort spores were found in Argentina, dating to the much earlier Middle Ordovician, around 470 million years ago.[1][32] ...

Liverwort - Marchantiophyta Jungermanniales

Edited March 3, 2015 by Turtle

[Racoon]

I agree with you Turtle in some respects.

Moss and Lichens are important for breaking down forest detritus and converting CO to Oxygen. And there are many possibilities to their other industrial or medicinal uses..

Didn't the Native Americans use Ooznyia (terrible spelling, phonetically correct) for disinfecting wounds ??