RHH's photos with the keyword: cladonia

Some of these lichens can be told apart only by chemical analysis, but this appears to be the Cup Lichen growing on a fallen log in the Hoh Rainforest. The photo was taken by my wife. Lichens are interesting for several reasons. They are a "mutalistic" association of a fungus and an alga (sometimes a bacterium). They also concentrate radioactive fallout passing it up the food chain. This happened with the Reindeer Lichen, reindeer and their herders following the Chernobyl disaster.

These are tiny, only an inch or so tall. I believe they are the British Soldier Lichens, Cladonia cristatella. These were photographed on a boulder on Slide Mountain in Whatcom County, Washington.