RHH's photos with the keyword: flora

These Snowberries, the fruits of a native shrub, were photographed on a hike to Newman Lake in eastern Washington with other family members. It has been a tough week. Our trip to Canada next month to see our grandchildren there had to be cancelled due to covid restrictions. We had a windstorm Wednesday that left us and many others without electricity and we are still without - maybe for another four or five days. We have a generator and have had that running for three days but can only run the refrigerator, a small heater and our phone chargers s from that. The storm also blew down a tree across the road and all the debris from that is piled in our front yard with little hope of it being removed soon.

These Snowberries, the fruits of a native shrub, were photographed on a hike to Newman Lake in eastern Washington with other family members.

These Snowberries, the fruits of a native shrub, were photographed on a hike to Newman Lake in eastern Washington with other family members.

Today's photos are of what we sometimes call "small nature," little things we see along the way as we are walking and hiking and stop to photograph, in this case some lichens on the branch of a Ponderosa that my wife noticed. If I am not mistaken there are three different lichens here, including the little patch of orange at the top, but I've not tried to identify any of them. Note: Janet has correctly identified the orange lichen, I believe, as Xanthoria parietina, the Common Orange Lichen and I believe the green lichen with the fruiting bodies to be the Brown-eyed Wolf Lichen, Letharia columbiana. The third, appearing as blue-green scaly patches I can't see well enough in the photos and will have to look for it again.

This Willow leaf caught my eye as we were walking near our home last faul. It was almost the last leaf still hanging on the color and curl, I thought, were exquisite.

We noticed the frozen sap hanging on this cut branch of a Ponderosa as we were out walking and stopped to take photos. The branch had been cut because it was hanging over the lane where we were walking and interfered with traffic.

My wife and I have been hunting for lichens on our walks the last few days. She discovered what she called a miniature garden of them and we've since been taking more notice of them. There are at least four different kinds on this branch though I've made no effort to identify them. We've also noticed that in spite of the cold weather we've had many of them turn a brighter green and start producing their fruiting bodies, here the darker patches on the frilled leaf-like lichens. Perhaps this is a sign of spring, but if so it is the only sign we've seen.

My wife and I have been hunting for lichens on our walks the last few days. She discovered what she called a miniature garden of them and we've since been taking more notice of them. We've noticed that in spite of the cold weather we've had many of them have turned a brighter green and are producing their fruiting bodies, in this case the raised darker patches on the lichens. Perhaps this is a sign of spring, but if so it is the only sign we've seen.

My wife and I have been hunting for lichens on our walks the last few days. She discovered what she called a miniature garden of them and we've since been taking more notice of them. There are at least three different kinds on this branch though I've made no effort to identify them. We've also noticed that in spite of the cold weather we've had many of them have turned a brighter green and are producing their fruiting bodies, in this case the little cups on the end of the branches of one of them. Perhaps this is a sign of spring, but if so it is the only sign we've seen.

My wife and I have been hunting for lichens on our walks the last few days. She discovered what she called a miniature garden of them and we've since been taking more notice of them. We've also noticed that in spite of the cold weather we've had many of them have turned a brighter green and are producing their fruiting bodies, in this case the raised cup-like growths. Perhaps this is a sign of spring, but if so it is the only sign we've seen.