Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: British Soldiers

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)...