Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: lichen

If you stare closely at Oak trees and many other types as well, you will find all kinds of lichen and sometimes fungus encrusted on the bark. This tiny plantlife is often so small that it will appear to be different-colored dots, a fuzzy haze, or an odd mold. It's only when you have a macro lens or magnifying glass, that you can see how cool they look! I'm not sure what these species are called, but the lichen (I think that's lichen) looks like tiny red buttons and black currents, so there you go! I have seen the red buttons in black, white, green, yellow, and sometimes a color with white edging. Super cool and such fun to photograph! (Please correct me if the red buttons are a kind of fungus!)

Our property is covered by oak forest which is divided by a large meadow. There is a huge variety of plants and animals to photograph, and with a macro lens, there is no end to all of the subjects to discover and capture. One of my favorite types of plants are the lichens, and we have many that grow here. I love these shrubby lichens, and their name, "Fruticose," means "shrubby"! :)

The first day of my 365 project, back in 2013, was truly full of wonderous scenes to capture. I kept finding lovely subjects but on that day, I really wanted to find a mushroom to begin my project. However, just in case I didn't find one, I took pictures of everything that dazzled me along the way. This adorable Pixie lichen is very common on our property, where it grows in groups on logs, stumps and thick branches on trees. I will also find it adhered to boulders where it nestles among moss and other species of lichen. Barely rising above the snow which surrounded it, I was delighted to find that its cup contained not one droplet, but two, and one of them was still frozen. So special! :)

1 more picture above in a note! :) It wasn't horribly cold today--just about freezing, but sometimes it feels extra cold. I'm not sure why. It wasn't windy, but the cold just went right to the bone! However, that certainly didn't stop me! I wandered up onto our hill and soon found droplets on lichen that had me fascinated. Many were frozen and I looked for lichen that had just the right frozen droplets, positioned so that I'd be able to make them stand out, and I looked for distance from other subjects to create a solid, low-key background. That was a challenge because this type of moss usually clings closely to the branch it's growing on, or there are clusters all together. But I was able to find a few that were just right! :) Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee. His key influence related to bold use of colour, and a clear love of experimentation of both depth and tone. Wikipedia: Robert Delaunay

3 more pictures in notes above ! :) A couple of weeks ago, I finally started going out with our Canon macro flash and forcing myself to get used to the extra weight. It's been tremendously rewarding and every day I've been able to take pictures that I wouldn't waste my time with previously. When working at a macro scale, your depth of field needs to be very deep if you want to get an entire object in focus, and that's simply not possible without a tripod or a flash if you're as close as possible and the subject is tiny. Believe me, I've tried to be stubborn, but it's a waste of time. Even though my camera handles very high ISO extremely well, a tightly cropped, extreme macro is not usable with ISO higher than about 600-800 or so (depending on various factors). Needless to say, lower ISO is better. I know it, and I was just TIRED of fighting with light constraints. I'm still learning to use this flash (and I know I have a lot to learn!), but I'm comfortable with it now and my reward is being able to look at everything with a high potential of getting a great picture! Suddenly, the zillions of tiny things in darker places are now available to me. Talk about EXCITING!! Today the dogs and I went up onto our ridge again and I made a bee line down to the end of the trail because that's where there's a high percentage of conifers and a moister environment. I found lots and lots of mushrooms and other interesting non-macro subjects (like some cool oak burls and a cute picture of Molly glowing with happiness), and enjoyed peering closely at countless logs, bark and rocks. I got images of 9 different mushrooms in groups of 1-3, and as I was about to head back, I looked down and saw this crazy lichen! I've seen one similar to this, but not so ornate and beautiful. Next to this lichen I found another very odd type of lichen too, and I will share that another day. I'm so happy that I was able to get a crisp picture of this cool lichen to share! :) (By the way, I think this lichen is called Cladonia cervicornis) Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940), was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He founded the Black Star Line, part of the Back-to-Africa movement, which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands. Marcus Garvey Explored on December 2, 2013. Highest placement, page 8.

This is a group with some nice bokeh! More about this fascinating lichen from the article Island Creek's Ecology: British Soldiers British Soldiers is a lichen which gets its name from its resemblance to the uniforms worn by English soldiers during the Revolutionary War. A lichen is not just one organism, but a fungus and algae living together to form a new organism. The fungus in British Soldiers is called Cladonia cristatella. The algae is known as Trebouxia erici. Because lichens take the name of the fungus part of the relationship, British Soldiers is also known as Cladonia cristatella. Each part of the lichen appears to help the other. The fungus provides the algae with a "house" to live in, and the algae makes food for the fungus. Each organism could live on its own, but they seem to do much better together. The algae can also form lichens with other species of fungi, but the fungus cannot make a lichen with any algae other than Trebouxia erici. The main body of a lichen is called a "thallus." You can only have a thallus when the fungus and algae have joined. The bright colors of British Soldiers would not be there if the fungus was alone; instead it would look like a white blob. The red part of British Soldiers makes spores. Spores are a lot like seeds from plants, in that they can travel by wind and start a new fungus. The new fungus will not become British Soldiers, though, until the algae joins it. (Please visit the full article for more information!

4 images above in notes! :) This is a close up of the British Soldier in the main image. I wanted to show the wonderful detail! :) From Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for July 2002: Cladonia cristatella [cluh-DOHN-ee-uh cris-ta-TELL-uh] is a very common and well known lichen, found throughout the northeastern USA into Canada. There are look-alike species throughout most of the world as well. The little red "caps" that resemble the red hats worn by invading British troops during the American Revolutionary war give the lichen its common name of the the "Bristish Soldier Lichen." In reality, the red hats are actually the sexual fruiting structure of the lichen, the apothecia. (be sure to visit Tom's page for the full article!)

5 more pictures in notes above ! :) I left the dogs behind today because I wanted to go to the lower forest to look for mushrooms and other interesting subjects, but this area of our property is not fenced to the main road. I can't concentrate on both photography and the dogs at the same time and I will not risk their safety, so they had to stay at home. Veering off into the darker part of the forest, I came to a stop at a very special log which I call "The British Soldier Log." On it grows a beautiful and tiny, red-tipped lichen that I have not found anywhere else on our property except on a log along the ridge line. I'll never forget how excited I was when I first found this lichen a couple of years ago. Who ever heard of red-tipped lichen before?!! SO COOL!!! :D Since I had my macro flash on my camera, I knew I'd be able to get some good pictures, and I also had some time to spend, so I decided to really study this log carefully. I took off my glasses so that I was essentially blind, but for what I was doing, I could see better than most. I spent about 20 minutes looking very carefully all over this log to see what other treasures grew there. I found other groups of British Soldier Lichen that I hadn't seen before and many types of fungus and lichen, and I even found acorns that had been hammered into a tiny crack by some woodpeckers! As I was looking around the log, I noticed a crack, which I peered through. On the other side, the perfect form of a beautiful British Soldier stared back at me! Grabbing my glasses and grinning broadly, I knew I had my Picture of the Day as I positioned my camera for a series of pictures! Field Marshal William Joseph "Bill" Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia. He fought in both the First and Second world wars and was wounded in action three times. During World War II he led the 14th Army, the so-called "forgotten army" in the Burma campaign. From 1953 to 1959 he was Governor-General of Australia, regarded by many Australians as an authentic war hero who had fought with the Anzacs at Gallipoli. Wikipedia: William Slim (British Soldier) Explored on November 25, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#41)...

This image was taken during the MeetUp hike to the rear of Mt. Ashland on September 3, 2011.

This picture was taken on our MeetUp hike to the base of Pilot Rock.

This photo was taken on July 2, 2011, while on the MeetUp hike to Lost Falls, near Ashland, Oregon

[best appreciated at full size against black] Little, tiny, itty bitty, eensy, weensy slug! I have Steve to thank for pointing this adorable little guy out to me, and he was hard to spot, measuring only about 1/2 an inch long! Here you can see him motoring along through the foliose lichen and moss forest, with a Pixie lichen towering over him. For another size reference, in the upper left is the "flower" of a moss plant, called a sporophyte...that's SMALL! Finally, you should take a look at where this guy is heading! Why...it's a mushroom! And that is probably what he'll be munching when he arrives, as it's a favorite food for mollusks! (In this image, you can see something on the mushroom...it's a BUG! I wonder if they will share?!) This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] If you look closely at trees, you will notice that many of them are adorned with lichen, fungi, and molds of all kinds. What seems small and plain at a glance can be quite a spectacular thing when viewed through a macro lens. This frilly lichen is a favorite of mine because it has so many interesting shapes! It can look like so many things...a coral head...a deer's antlers...a lettuce leaf...did you know that there are approximately 17,000 kinds of lichen in the world?!! WOW! I think they are very interesting, and also very beautiful! (And by the way, the bark of this tree is smooth and silky to the touch and has such a feeling of warmth and life. You can feel its entity glowing if you close your eyes while you have your hand on it. Trees are very special, aren't they?) I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in February, 2012.

Here is another picture from our photo hike to Lost Lake Reservoir. When Steve and I decided to turn around for the return trip, we stopped to have our lunch right there on the trail. Of course I couldn't help looking around while we munched on our sandwiches and chips, and this beautiful scene was something I found as I peered closely at the side of the trail. I didn't realize how cool that lichen actually looked until I saw the pictures on my computer, it's so small that I didn't detect the beautiful detail and colors! Above and behind the lichen are several dried moss sporophytes that appear to be checking things out! :D

[best appreciated at full size against black] Nope! This is a chunk of rock that fell off of a huge shelf of granite and I found it exactly as you see here, nestled on a bed of moss. Encrusted on this bit of rock is a kind of lichen, called "Crustose Soil Lichen" and I just love its black and white coloring and cool texture. I thought this little scene would be fun to share with all of you here on Flickr! I hope you like it! :) This image was taken in February, 2012.

Imagine my surprise when I was nosing around in our lower forest and I found dozens of tiny lichen parading as Lucille Ball with flaming red heads! After some help with identification, I found out that this is called British Soldier Lichen! :) Personally, I think this lichen has some 'splainin' to do! :D British Soldier lichen gets its name for its resemblance to the red outfits worn by soldiers in the Revolutionary War. I found a great page with more information about this lichen here: Islandcreek Ecology: British Soldiers

Back in January, I was taking pictures of mushrooms up on our ridge line when I noticed something like a piece of dust floating in the air in front of my face. I refocused my eyes and found this piece of lichen hanging from this web! The web was so fine that I could just barely see it! I thought it would be fun to share this cool discovery with everyone! :)

One day while looking around on our ridge line for cool things to photograph, I found a group of Pixie Lichen. Imagine my surprise when I saw that there was a pair of lichen growing out of the cup of a larger one beneath!! AMAZING!! :D