Close-up of Pixie Cup lichen (Cladonia species) growing in a patch of moss on a woodland bank. Thin upright stalks rise from a leafy green base and end in small cup-shaped tips. The cups look like tiny goblets or trumpets standing above a miniature moss forest.
Had a different glimpse ot the minature forest when I saw this PIxie Cup (Cladonia species) while Iooking for liverworts..
Wooden stepped ladder leading up to a pedestrian gate in a dry stone wall. Either side of the ladder is green bracken. On other side of the gate is more bracken and low grassy hill in sunlight.
Frondy stilin' above Troutbeck.
Maidenhair Spleenwort in the chemist’s doorway #FernFriday
Licorice ferns on the bridge arch at Whatcom Falls Park, Fragile Fork Moss (Dicranum tauricum) common in lowland forests of the PNW. Outside air temperature is 42F around 5 C and Whatcom Creek 40 F around 4 C and he is doing a back flip from the cliff approximately 5 meters above the pool of water.
Just a little #liverwort island in a creek :)
Three dimensional!
Thrush soprano
Recognised by the three-dimensional nature of each frond, and the characteristic 'bunny-ear' shape of the first pinnae (leaf-like structures) appearing from the rachis (stem)
Where conditions are good for growth, Beech Fern can dominate small stands. It is a rhizomatous fern that creeps along woodland floors and rock faces, preferring a slightly base-rich influence.
Beech Fern
Phegopteris connectilis
A huge stand of beech fern in Roudsea woods, Cumbria for #fernfriday
Literally translating as phego (beech) ptetis (fern), 'connectilis' refers to the basal pinnules of each pinnae being entirely fused to the rachis 🌿
#botany #ferns
#uknature #plants
Ancient woodland. No dinosaurs though.
I will too.
I gardened for years without really noticing liverworts, saw them as a weed, then looked closer. Now I look for them.
Devon U.K.
Citrus, some describe it as like turpentine but for me it was citrus.
It was too beautiful a moment to spoil. Plus I looked up and saw a new fungi that I have not seen before…
It is still there.
Good places to be
Close-up of Great Scented Liverwort (Conocephalum conicum), a liverwort bryophyte, growing on damp soil beside a woodland brook. Bright green flat lobed thalli spread across the bank, each surface marked with a striking mosaic of small polygon patterns. This liverwort releases a citrus scent when gently rubbed.
I was delighted to see this today, I think it is Great Scented Liverwort "Conocephalum conicum" growing on the bank of the brook in a Devon woodland.
tinyurl.com/2rusmr8p
#liverwort
Sunlit woodland bank covered in bright green moss (a bryophyte). Fox-tail Feather-moss (Thamnobryum alopecurum) forms lush draping growth over a sloping bank at the base of a tree, the shoots rising and branching like tiny green trees or soft fox-tail plumes. Nearby a Hart’s-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) grows with long strap-shaped fronds. Winter sunlight filters through bare woodland branches in the background.
The woods were so beautiful today...
Close-up woodland floor scene among moss (a bryophyte). A pale lace-like skeletonised leaf lies across a dark decaying leaf, the fine network of veins still intact while the softer leaf tissue has disappeared. Bright green feathery moss surrounds it, with a small woodland seedling and a catkin nearby.
I saw this while looking at moss today...
"Oxymitra incrassata, a thallose liverwort, seen today in the same place where I found it about 20 years ago, near Begur. #liverworts #bryophytes"
Sphagnum austinii with green and red S. rubellum #moss #bryophyte
The interesting fact about these pictures is that it shows the life history of this tree in that it began life on a nurse log, a common nutrition source in temperate Northwest forests, and once the tree is fully decomposed all that remains is the outline of the phantom log under the roots.
Perhaps it is a liverwort - Floating Crystalwort (Riccia fluitans)?
tinyurl.com/45xy39tc
This study presents an integrative, worldwide infrageneric classification of Lejeunea, one of the most species-rich liverwort genera with ~375 species. Two subgenera and 15 sections are recovered by combining morphology with molecular phylogenetics.
➡️ doi.org/10.5091/plec...
Upright stems and a yellow-green colour make it stand out against darker mosses on the forest floor
Ptilium crista-castrensis
Ostrich plume feather moss is definitely a species where the English name sticks better than the binomial!
An easy example for recognising a pinnately-branched (once divided) structure, similar to simple ferns 🌿
#bryophytes #moss
#ukbotany #uknature
#nature
An adult Eurasian Blue Tit entering a nest box with moss for its nest. The nest is built with moss on the left side and dead grass on the right side showing each adult had a preferred nest building material and each was responsible for half the nest building. Photographed in a specially designed nest box in a south Cheshire garden.
Today's alternative #BirdOfTheDay theme is #NestBuilders. An adult Eurasian Blue Tit entering the nest box with moss. Also a post for the #AlphabetChallenge #WeekIForInteriors.
Photographed in #Cheshire, England in 1987. See alt text for more details.
#EastCoastKin #photography #birds #nature
Sphagnum majus portrait #moss #bryophyte
Black Spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. Such a pretty fern. On the walls of St George's Brede, East Sussex. Its not rare at all but I don't see it much. I think that's because it often gets removed from church walls; probrably its main substrate. Well done St George's for leaving it.
It never occurred to me before that frogs can purr
Little Paxton Pits yesterday. Drepanocladus aduncus at pool edge- a rain fed ephemeral pond.
