Jeff, Stopping by Woods

I’d like to take credit, but that’s actually its name as opposed to an adjective I was using:)

Photo of a round, orange lichen on mottled colour rock. The lichen is comprised of numerous branching arms, radiating out from the centre.

Elegant Orange Sunburst Lichen. NWT, Canada. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Photo of a cluster of a couple of dozen cream coloured, fan-shaped fungi growing on a dead, bark-free tree trunk. A pill bug is visible in front of the fungi.

A cluster of fungus, Panellus stipticus. #Newfoundland, Canada. Cluster is approx 8 to 10cm, left to right. #fungi #fungifriends

it‘s a fun one…that colour! Usually on dead branches/trunks of aspen and willow trees.

Photo of a few square inches of tree trunk. Growing on the tree trunk are several grey lichens (growing flat on tree), a lichen that looks like a bunch of tiny egg yolks, and a bright red fungus that looks like a half dozen or so round/oval red blobs.

A few square inches of tree trunk. At least 4 species of lichens (Parmelia, two Physcia species and Caloplaca) plus Red Tree Brain Fungus. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends.

Photo of a Cladonia podetium that is comprised of a thick stalk that’s grey in colour and covered in green scales/squamules plus apothecia at the top that are brown in colour with a bubbly/lumpy surface.

Cladonia sp lichen. NWT, Canada.
Lichen is about 3cm high. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Photo of a blue-green lichen growing on a birch tree. The lichen is in sort of an octopus shaped mound, with frilly edges instead of tentacles. It’s covered in numerous disc shaped apothecia which have blue-grey edges and dark brown centres.

Physcia sp lichen on a birch tree.
NWT, Canada. Photo covers about 5cm, left to right. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Really beautiful work!

Thanks! A fairly typical mix for this beach...blue, green, clear, brownish, and winter-red (hands) 😀

Same here in outport Newfoundland:)

Photo of a lichen covered, dead, grey tree branch. The end of the branch looks like a face with a spiky top. Overall itboooks a bit like the character, Groot. The branch is covered in yellow and orange disc-shaped lichen apothecia.

A licheny Baby Groot. NWT, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends
Photo covers about 10cm top to bottom.

Newfoundland is the place to be for wild berries! Our freezers typically have 50 to 70 gallons of berries…blueberries, cloudberries, raspberries, lingonberries, cranberries, blackberries and more.

It does look tasty…but only a very small number of lichens are (occasionally) eaten by humans...and even those generally taste like crap:) Even caribou mainly stick to 3 or 4 of these matt-forming, fluffy white Cladonia species out of the 20,000 or so lichen species that are known

Photo of an orange lichen growing on the white bark of a birch tree. The lichen looks like a roundish mound of orange discs which are the apothecia (spore producing structures).

A Xanthoria/Sunburst lichen, I think.
NWT, Canada. The orange lichen is about 3cm wide. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Thanks! lichens actually don’t hurt trees at all. It can seem like lichens are hurting trees because the number of lichens on a tree increases with tree age. So, by the time trees are quite old and dying (old age) they are often covered in lichen…leaving the impression that lichens are the cause.

Photo of several Cladonia podetia which look like grey golf tees. The top of the two larger podetia are ringed with several bright red blobs (apothecia).

Cladonia sp lichens. Newfoundland, Canada. Lichens are approx 2cm high.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Thank you!

Photo of a green-grey lichen growing flat on dark rock. Lichen has frilly edges. The centre contains dozens of small discs that are olive coloured with white rims.

Lichen, Protoparmeliopsis muralis. NWT, Canada. lichen is about 5cm in longest dimension. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

A few summers ago.

Photo of two green-grey Cladonia podetia that look like trumpets from Dr. Seuss book.

A couple of Dr. Seuss trumpets.
Cladonia lichens. NWT, Canada.
These lichens are about 2cm high.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends

lichens are composite species consisting of a fungus and a photosynthetic partner - either an alga, a Cyanobacterium or both.

Photo of a flat section of rock completely covered in flat-growing lichens. Includes two yellow lichens, one orange lichen and one grey lichen.

A lichen collage on seaside rock. Newfoundland, Canada. Includes Xanthoria (leafy yellow), Physcia (grey), Rusavskia (orange) and Polycaulinia (the other yellow lichen). #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

I was thinking something similar…but in the fox family.

It’s actually creeping juniper. This up-close view has a bit of a succulent look.

Photo of a fungus on a juniper branch. The fungus consists of a small reddish ball with several long, oval jelly-like growths.

Cedar Rust Fungus. NWT, Canada.
#fungus #fungi #fungifriends
Fungus in pic is about 2 to 3 cm high.

Photo of a light grey lichen comprised of numerous octopus-looking branches covered in dark grey discs (the apothecia).

A Physcia sp lichen on a poplar tree.
NWT, Canada. photo covers about 6cm, left to right. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Photo of an off-white lichen growing on rock. The lichen has several orange discs (apothecia) and a large brain-looking growth.

Another brainy Orange Rock Posy #lichen. NWT, Canada. Pic covers about 5cm, left to right. #fungi #fungifriends.
Typically this species doesn’t have these brainy growths, but over the years, I’ve found several dozen specimens that do.

Photo of a roundish, cream coloured lichen growing flat on dark rock. About 80%of the lichen (all but the edges) is covered in dozens (hundreds?) of small round discs called apothecia.

Orange Rock Posy Lichen. NWT, Canada.
lichen is about 3cm in diameter.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Beautiful lichen/photos, Uta!

Thanks! Like flowers, the orange parts are reproductive structures. They‘re called apothecia and they are the structures that produce spores.