All for one and one for all... Licheneers!

So, I joined a group of folks who get together on the second Tuesday of each month at Western to look at microscopes and study lichens and bryophytes (mosses). We are called the Licheneers! We spend two and a half hours sharing, chatting, learning, teaching, and observing.

How wonderful it is to have access to such deep observation... I have seen things that I could have never imagined because of this technology and these people. There is so much knowledge in the room... yesterday I was diverted from my microscope to learn about harvesting nettles and even more ways of storing and eating them: drying, teas, remedies, etc.

I found a lichen last month, only two days after the meeting. I was nettle hunting and harvesting if you will recall. I shared the context and where I found the lichen. It looks like a beast! It was scary and exciting... so I picked it from the top of a moss-covered stump and brought it with me to the Licheneers for some help.

I struggled mightily with the biology terms and vocabulary. I understand the basics of biology but it is not readily available in my mental database... so I re-learn high school science while jumping into a higher academic level... with folks who have been studying these things for years. They are kind to me as I ask the most rudimentary questions. But it is good for me to start anew and hopefully the answers they give are helpful to them as they explain the very basics.

Last night I identified this (not my picture) :

(copied on April 10, 2013 from: http://donegal-wildlife.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html)

After about an hour of using a dichotomous key, I came to the genus, PELTIGERA. I got there wrongly as it turns out, but I was right in the genus! It is a "Pelt" Lichen, a type of foliose (or leaf-like) lichen. Eventually, with the help of Fred Rhoades, our brave leader, I identified it down to the species.

It is called Peltigera membranacea. It has furry veins on the underside, and you can see the thalli are thin and like spikes almost. A thallus (pl: thalli) is a root-like structure, but not technically a root because it doesn't transport nutrients. They are likened (pun!) to holdfasts for kelp in the ocean. They simple keep the organism attached to a surface. I think this is correct but I might be wrong :)

This was the first of many more lichens I hope to study and identify. One characteristic and dozens of vocabulary words at a time! See you next second Tuesday.