Lichens revisited

Man this is my second day in a row doing strenuous exercise while collecting lichen samples. Boy did I get some good ones! I hiked up Mount Sentinel this morning in the rain. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but when I got to the top I saw the next peak over called University. I decided to take the trail that goes down along the saddle between the two peaks and climb the other mountain while I was at it. It was on this saddle ridge area where I found the new lichens.

The area was burned not too long ago, with lots of larch regeneration and some ponderosa and doug fir as well. I thought it was interesting to see willow up there because it is normally associated with riparian areas right next to streams, where the relatively frequent flooding provides it a new bed of sediment to grow on. It is good at colonizing these freshly disturbed river soils, but not a great competitor otherwise so it sticks to asexual production, spreading with rhizomes. It makes sense that it would be able to germinate in a burned area because the post fire situation could be somewhat similar to a flood, but where did the seed source come from way up on that ridge? I guess wind can do amazing things.

Anyway the lichens sure were interesting and they even help to tell a little bit of a story. Cladonia cariosa is a species of lichen that is one of the first to show up on the soil after a disturbance. I didn't see it in great numbers, but then again the disturbance was some 10 or fifteen years ago so the species would probably decline as the shade of the kinnikinnik came in. Also Cladonia chlorophaea which is a more common species. Not really good at telling a story because its sort of like finding deer tracks in a forest, it doesn't tell you too much about the forest because deer are everywhere. If you find fisher tracks its a better indicator.

i also found Xanthaparmelia coloradoensis what a cool looking organism. It has parts that look like gray bowls full of black chocolate and grayish leaves that curl up like kale. Also not a great indicator species. But farther north its possible that it could be used to determine an area that doesn't have prolonged snow cover.

Further down the slope I found two more lichens. These were on the North slope of Sentinel where there is much more moisture and it shows in all the plants. There was moss on either side of the trail and just a much denser vegetation cover. On this steep slope I saw freckle pelt Peltigera aphthosa, a large green leaf lichen with black warts on it. The underside is lighter, whitish even, and it feels like the flesh of a mushroom. A very similar lichen grew alongside it, but rather than a bright green color, it was in fact brown. The underside white, but this time not only did it feel like the underside of a mushroom, but looked like it too. They looked like gills under there! I think its another peltigera species, but I can't identify it for sure with the book I've got. So thats pretty exciting stuff!