I'm Likin' the Lichens

Hey there,

Gold-eye.

So I decided to post some stuff on lichens to start off because I found a twig that's a veritable garden of the strange organisms.  It had fallen off one of the oaks in front of the Cowell/Stevenson dining hall balcony.  I counted at least six types of lichen on this branch, one of which I rarely see elsewhere.

Everything I know about lichens I have gleaned from the amazing book The Natural History of the UC Santa Cruz Campus by Tonya M. Haff, Martha T. Brown, and W. Breck Tyler.  It's our version of Hogwarts, a History.  Simply put, it's indispensable.

Anyway, a lichen is sort of two organisms: an algal organism embedded in a fungus.  As I understand it, the relationship is mutually beneficial in most cases.  Certain aspects of the lichen life cycle are still a mystery to scientists, and some of the pioneering researchers in the redwood canopy were obsessed with discovering new secrets about these fungi/algae combos.  On campus they often grow on tree bark.  Oak makes a great substrate for lichens, while redwood bark is thought to contain a multitude of toxins that make it relatively inhospitable to epiphytes (organisms that grow on other organisms).  Other factors do make the redwood canopy a great habitat, though it does not support lichens as well as other trees do.

Anyway, on to this little garden of lichens.  After a quick look at Natural History, I found that the orange lichen in the picture above is gold-eye lichen (Teloschistes chrysopthalmus).

Two similar but (I'm guessing) different types of ruffle-
shaped lichens to the left of the gold-eye lichen.  The bluer
one appears to be powdered ruffle lichen.

In this picture on the left, you can see two distinct ruffle-like lichens to the left of the gold-eye.  The blue-green one on the left appears to be powdered ruffle lichen (Parmotrema chinense), and based on the color I think the larger, sicklier-green one in the middle is a separate species.

A close-up of the unidentified ruffle-
shaped lichen.

The rest I couldn't identify definitively, but here are some portraits of the little lichen garden.  I think the stringy lichens are two species in the genus Usnea, or "old man's beard."