Cladonias, anyhow

Some lichens seem easy to identify. Up to a point, that is. These lichens are all Cladonia species. But then things get complicated. My new lichen guide book has 40 pages dedicated to the Cladonias of the Pacific Northwest, with several to many species mentioned on each page. And those have many variants, and umpteen look-alikes.

But at least I can say these are Cladonia species. And they were all growing on a pair of old logs in the Oyster Bay dunes.

Reindeer lichen, possibly Cladonia portentosa. (Used to be Cladina portentosa, but now they're recognized as another Cladonia.) With moss in a crack of an old log.

More reindeer lichen, more moss, and tiny Cladonia squamules.

A log full of new reindeer lichens, Cladonia squamules (those tiny green specks, the first stage of many of the Cladonias), and moss.

A tall, spindly Cladonia. Bottom right; another Cladonia, with pixie cups. And, of course, moss.

This one looks like a mini-forest. A tall Cladonia, with the squamules (looking like leaves) growing up the stalks. Possibly Cladonia squamosa.

They do look like trees, don't they?

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Algunos de los líquenes parecen fáciles de reconocer. Bueno, hasta cierto punto. Y luego .... Todos estos líquenes pertenecen al género Cladonia. Pero ahora todo se vuelve una confusión total. Mi nuevo libro guia sobre macrolíquenes dedica 40 páginas a las Cladonias de esta región, con varias o muchas especies mencionadas en cada página. Y de esas especies, hay muchos variantes, y un montón de especies casi idénticas.

Pero por lo menos sé que estos son líquenes del género Cladonia. Todos, con los musgos, crecían en un par de troncos antiguos en las dunas de Oyster Bay.

1. Líquenes de los renos, posiblemente Cladionia portentosa. (Antes se clasificaban como del género Cladina, pero ahora se reconocen como Cladonia sp.)
2. Más de los mismos, musgos, y escamas miniaturas de otra especie de Cladonia.
3. Y más. Las escamas de Cladonia son esos puntitos verdes; es la primera etapa de muchos de los líquenes Cladonia.
4. Un liquen alto y puntiagudo. Y en la esquina inferior, a la derecha, otros Cladonia, estos del tipo "copa de hadas".
5. Estos parecen un bosquecito minúsculo. Un liquen Cladonia con tallos cubiertos de escamas que parecen hojas. Posiblemente sea Cladonia squamosa.
6. Parecen arbolitos, ¿no?

Ubiquitous

In some areas, every old bit of log or stump or even discarded wood gets covered in these tiny Cladonia sp. lichens. In the mini-forest at Oyster Bay, it's always damp, even in mid-summer; everything near or on the ground is covered in mushrooms, mosses, lichens, and sometimes slime molds. These lichens are growing near the edge of the woods, where some sunlight reaches them; the camera appreciates that.

On a burnt log. Probably lipstick lichen, Cladonia macilenta, with a mix of pixie cup lichens; these have tiny brown fruiting bodies (apothecia).

Tall clubs (podetia) with red fruiting bodies at the tips.

The tiny scales (squamules) are the first to appear, covering the wood before the fertile clubs show up.

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En algunos sitios, cada tocón viejo, cada tronco tirado, aun cada pedazo de madera abandonado termina cubierto de estos líquenes, de varias especies de Cladonia. El bosquecito de Oyster Bay se mantiene húmedo todo el año, hasta en los dias de calor, y el suelo y la madera vieja están completamente cubiertos de hongos, musgos, líquenes, y hasta mohos mucilaginosos. Estos crecen cerca del margen exterior del bosque, donde les llega a tocar la luz, cosa que las cámaras aprecian.

1. En un tronco quemado. Son líquenes Cladonia macilenta, el liquen "lapiz labial", compartiendo el sitio con otros del mismo género, estos de los llamados "copa de hadas"; tienen en el borde de las copas pequeños cuerpos fructíferos color café (apotecios).
2. C. macilenta forma estructuras altas llamadas podecios; en la punta llevan los apotecios rojos.
3. Las escamas a la base son lo primero en aparecer, cubriendo la madera antes de que se levanten los podecios.

Close encounters

 I was standing in the snowy forest, nose to a tree trunk, when a woman came over the hill. She called out to me, "Where's the trail?" Without turning away from my bit of old bark, I pointed; over there, to my right, her left. She nodded, then backtracked before turning towards the trail, giving me a wide berth; there are weird people in this forest, don't get too close.

I never get tired of looking at lichen. Not weird at all. Here's what I was looking at:

Cladina sp., probably Reindeer lichen.

Pixie-cup lichens, Cladonia sp. Tiny, leafy squamules, and tall fruiting bodies.

Cladonia, standing tall. There are also some tiny white barnacle lichens. Zoom in.

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Yo estaba parada en medio del bosque, mirando muy de cerca, a unos escasos centímetros, el tronco de un árbol, cuando una mujer apareció subiendo la cresta del cerrito atrás de mi árbol. —¿Dónde queda el sendero? — me gritó; la nieve lo había escondido y estábamos las dos en nieve sin huellas. Apunté, sin alejarme del tronco; allá a mi derecho, a su izquierda. Inclinó la cabeza, y luego volvió sobre sus huellas una poca distancia antes de dar vuelta hacia el sendero; en estos bosques hay gente extraña; hay que evitar contacto.

Yo nunca me canso de observar los líquenes. No hay nada extraño en eso.

Esto es lo que miraba, allí en ese tronco:

1. Liquen, del género Cladina, probablemente liquen de los renos, Cladina portentosa.
2. Estos son "copa de duende", Cladonia sp. Se ven las pequeñas escamas, que parecen hojas, y los cuerpos fructíferos, como copas sobre un pedestal.
3. Cladonia sp. Además hay unos líquenes muy pequeñitos, formandos botoncitos redondos, blancos. Hay que mirar de cerca.

Some are Scantily Clad

 Ways of Enlichenment's 2010 list of Macrolichens of British Columbia includes 69 species of Cladonia lichen. They are all very similar, starting off as small scales, then developing the fertile clubs and pixie cups. They bear intriguing common names: Scantily Clad Pixie, Singing Pixie, the Bighorn and the Biggerhorn Pixie, the Troubled, Wounded, Starving, Imponderable, and Card-carrying Pixies ... Many need either/or chemical tests or microscopic examination for a definite identification. Fine by me; I'm content to look and wonder.

In a protected dip in rock covered by Hoary Rock moss, I found these Cladonias:

Fruiting bodies, top view.

These are the typical "pixie cups"; a goblet on a stalk, here the cups are lined with tiny pink and green granules, the fruiting bodies, aka propagules, called soredia. A slight touch is enough to dislodge them; then each one, a few cells each of fungus and alga, finding itself in a suitable spot, will become a new member of the colony.

Around the base of these stalks (the podetia) are the squamules, or scales; like tiny green leaves with scalloped edges.

A step away, more exposed, where the sun reached sooner, and where there was some soil on top of the rock, some of the Cladonias were long and spindly. A different species, probably; these lichens grow in mixed groups.

The whole stalk is covered by these granules.

Here the scales are tiny, dry and shrivelled, although the moss is still damp.

And then there were these, in a shadowy forest, growing on very wet, rotting wood;

An almost poisonous-looking green.

On these, the granules cover everything; the scales and the stalks, top to bottom. I don't see any cups or red tops.

Typical Cladonia stump.

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El sitio web "Ways of Enlichenment" tiene un catálogo de los líquenes de Columbia Británica, hecha en 2010; incluidas hay 69 especies de los Cladonia. Todos son muy similares; empiezan la vida como escamas miniaturas, y luego se desarrollan los cuerpos fructíferos, los tallos y las "copas de duendes". Llevan nombres comunes fascinantes (en inglés): El Duende semi-desnuda, Duende Cantante, el Duende de Cornamenta Grande, y el de Cornamenta Más Grande, el Problemático, el Herido, El Hambriento, el Imponderable, y el Poseedor de Tarjeta de Identidad ... Para identificarlos con alguna certeza se necesita o una prueba química o un examen microscópico o ambos. No importa: yo estoy contenta con admirarlos.

1. En un sitio protegido entre las rocas cubiertas de musgo, encontré estos líquenes Cladonia. Estas son las típicas "copas de duendecillo"; un cáliz con su soporte; aquí cada copa está cubierta por dentro y en el borde de pequeños gránulos, que son los cuerpos fructíferos, llamados soredios. Con solo un leve contacto, se desprenden y cada uno, compuesto de unas pocas células de hongo y de alga, al encontrarse en tierra, formará un organismo nuevo. Alrededor de la base de cada tallo se ven las escamas; parecen hojitas verdes con los bordes ondulados.
2. A apenas un paso de distancia, más expuestos al clima, donde les llega más el sol, y donde hay un poco de tierra sobre la roca, algunos de los Cladonia son altos y delgados.  Probablemente sean una especie distinta; los Cladonia crecen en comunidades mixtas. Aquí las escamas están secas y arrugadas, aunque el musgo sigue húmedo.
3. Estos crecen en un bosque en sombra, sobre madera podrida, bien mojada. En estos, los gránulos cubren todo; los tallos y las escamas también. No veo copas ni puntas rojas, que tienen otras de la especies de Cladonia.
4. Un tocón lleno de Cladonia sp.

Rainy day Cladonias

 Rain, rain, rain. It's what keeps us green. And all wet.

Here's some wet, green lichen on soaking-wet wood.

Cladonia sp. And a few dots of witches' butter.

The two forms of lichen here are all the same species. The tiny "leaves", or squamules, are the first to appear; the tall stalks, or podetia, are the fruiting bodies.

More Cladonia, on a blackened log.

More podetia here. Some with "pixie cup" tops, a couple with the red "lipstick" tips. These may be two distinct species.

And more. These fruiting bodies have neither cups nor red caps.

The weather people are promising us a few hours without rain tomorrow. That would be nice.

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Lluvia. Y más lluvia. Lo que nos pinta la isla de verde. Y bien mojada.

Aquí hay unos líquenes Cladonia sp., mojadas y verdes.

1. El liquen tiene dos formas: las escamas, que son la base del liquen, y los tallos, llamados podetia, que son los cuerpos fructíferos. En esta foto también hay unos pequeños hongos anaranjados, los que llamamos mantequilla de brujas.
2. Estos parecen ser dos distintas especies de Cladonia; unos cuyos cuerpos fructíferos llevan tazas, y otros con los sombreritos rojos.
3. Más líquenes, estos sin tazas ni sombreros.

Los meteorológicos nos están prometiendo unas horas sin lluvia para mañana. Bueno sería.

A bit of moss

It's October. The rains are starting, the nights are chilly, sunlight hours are shrinking. It's moss heaven.

Assorted mosses, leftover dew drops. Near Upper Campbell Lake.

Cladonia lichens in a bed of moss.

Almost like flowers. Two species of moss.

And blending in with the moss, a strange lichen, tangly and thin, with red or black spore-producing tips. This one is hard to see, even in RL, even lying on the moss with my nose in the patch. A fir needle defines the size.

More coming up.

Windowsill lichen

Photographing lichen usually means getting down on my knees in something wet and usually muddy, on slippery slopes, in the semi-dark under logs and cliffs. I gave up and collected a handful of Cladonia, brought it home and hot-glued it to a rock. It seems happy enough on my cool windowsill, with a frequent spray of filtered water.

And I can look at it in the light!

Cladonia pyxidata, Pebbled pixie cup, perhaps.

From up close, I can see that the thalli (the leafy structures) are more like oddly-shaped scales, called "squamules". They grow at the base, along the stalk, and in the cup itself. (Cup and stalk together are called "podetia".) The dark brown dots along the rim of the cup are apothecia, fruiting bodies containing the spores for the next generation. The miniature squamules can also break off and sprout vegetatively; like taking a cutting from a friend's geranium and sprouting it in water for your own garden.

(Knowing the names helps me to see better. I don't know how that works, but it does.)

Podetia, stacked. This growth pattern is called "proliferating".

More proliferating podetia. And the fat, green squamules at its base.

Backing off. The whole mini-garden.

Over the course of the day, as the lichen dries, the squamules shrink back, become greyish. A good soaking brings them right back; within a minute or so, they're fat and green again.

And now, as soon as the rains come back and the snow melts, I think I'll go and collect more species; there's a nice patch of reindeer lichen half a block from my door.

Spreading the word

I was crouched down on the path, peering intently at a wet log, when a woman walking her dog stopped to ask, was I alright?

I showed her the birds' nests.

Bird's eggs, or mini chocolate candies?

The "eggs" are spore cases, waiting their turn to flee the nest.

The nests are "splash-cups". When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the eggs are expelled to about 1 m away from the cup in some species. (Wikipedia: Nidulariaceae)

And then, there were the pixie cups:

The spores grow in nodes along the lip of the goblet. None visible here.

And the crust:

Unidentified porous fungus, with spiderlings and cream jelly dots.

And, as always, the orange jellies.

Good enough to eat. Really. But too tiny to harvest.

The dog walker thanked me, and went on her way, marvelling. And so the insanity spreads.

On another log, a few more of the rusty-gilled polypores were busy decomposing the wood:

Rusty-gilled polypore, Gloeophyllum sepiarium, about an inch long.

And a young-un.

About two weeks ago, I had seen this sepia mushroom near a few rusty-gills, and wondered what it was. I checked it again this Tuesday, and it had turned brown and black and matched the others.

(First five; Tyee Spit. The youngster is by Woodhus Slough.)

Goblets and towers

This is a pixie cup lichen.

Cladonia sp., possibly C. gracilis.

Cup lichen growing with mosses. The flattish "leaves", called thalli, are another stage of the same lichen.

Thalli of the Cladonias are composed of two parts – the squamulose primary thallus, developed on the substratum, and the secondary thallus consisting of erect podetia - pointed or cup-forming outgrows, occuring on the upper surface of the primary thallus. (Lichens in the Pieniny)

And I've found a match for the towering cup lichen that I posted a few days ago.

Cladonia verticillata.

And, following a comment on that day, I'm renaming it for my private memory bank as the "Dr. Seuss lichen".

See what I mean? Image from The Architecture of Dr. Seuss.

Lichen found here.