Jeff, Stopping by Woods

Isn’t it?! Mesmerizing. Here’s another little cluster.

Photo of a blueish fungus growing on a dead tree trunk on the forest floor. Some green moss sprigs are visible on the tree trunk. The fungus consists of a short, stout stalk, branching into two semi-open cups. One cup is atop the stalk and opened upwards. The other is on a short branch coming off from the right side of the stalk.

Chlorociboria aeruginascens aka green or blue-green elf cup #fungus. NWT, Canada. About 2cm high. #fungi #fungifriends

Photo of several relatively large (15cm high) crustose lichens on a flat, rock wall surface. The lichen in the middle is light grey with black specs. The lichens on the left and right are orange in colour. The large light grey lichen in the middle has three brown lichens growing on it that look two eyes and an open mouth…giving the grey lichen a ghost or ghoul-like appearance.

Boo! Happened upon this scary fella a few years ago on a hike here in #Newfoundland. Crustose lichens on rock. Height is about 15cm.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends #ghost

Yep, that sounds about right for Christmas up there:) It’s really beautiful in summer though. Lots of warm days, sun and very light winds.

Maybe 😉

Photo of about a third of a large, round, yellow lichen growing flat on reddish/purplish rock. The right half of the photo is lichen, the left half is bare rock. The lichen consists of a middle with a sugared, grainy appearance…hundreds of tightly packed branches radiate outward from the centre.

Polycaulinia sp lichen. #Newfoundland, Canada. Photo covers about 6cm top to bottom. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Thank you!

Ha, it was practically free. Thanks for donating.

Close up photo of a group of Cladonia podetia. Each podetium is light grey in colour and shaped roughly like a golf tee. The top/bowl of each podetium is ringed with numerous small, roundish bright red blobs. These blobs are called apothecia - they are reproductive, spore producing structures.

Cladonia lichens. NWT, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends #mushroom adjacent:) Photo covers about 4cm, left to right.

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.