The keys all take me to Lepidozia but then I'm stuck. This is just too big to be Lepidozia reptans. It is also brown yellow, nothing like the bright green of reptans.
It is up to 2.5mm wide, leaves are 1mm long, stems are 5-8cm long with uneven bipinnate branches.
There are 3-4 lobes on the leaves. If there are underleaves I can't see them.
Spores 25-30um round with what would be described as warts if they were mushroom spores. Elators about 125um long and 7.5um wide.
Leaf cells are round to egg shaped about 15um wide with what looks like many oil bodies. Specimen is two days old and got dried out in the sun.
This was found on the top of the bark of the base of a pistol butted hemlock tree at 3,800 feet in elevation. It had many sporophytes.
This cherry tree must be quite old. The trunk is covered with large lichens and carpets of moss. I must go back and look at these lichens some more.
Ignore the maple leaves in the background.. just look at that cherry bark and those luscious lichens.
Red stuff that grows in snow!
One of my favorite lichens was hanging out on a cliff face with some bryophytes and some peltigeras.
This was above 3,000 feet and laying in the snow in the middle of a logging road. At first I thought I was looking at a Hypogymnia lichen but then I saw the breaks in the cortex and realized it was something else.
This is old growth Hemlock at 3,800 feet. Simpson logged to 3,400 feet here.. all the way up to the Douglas-fir line. These hemlock on the ridge were spared. Want to see them? Be prepared to hike 13 miles and gain 2,800 feet in elevation. Only the lucky get to see this old growth forest.
This damp forest near Lake Cushman has lots of beargrass and Rhyditiopsis robusta moss.
I thinks this is a mole. It's not very alive. I found it because my dog decided to roll in it.
This little cutey was playing in the snow at 3,750 feet above Lake Cushman yesterday.
This moss remided me of homalothecium with its color, but it was not at all soft. It seems to be semi-aquatic. I did not take a sample, so I will never know.. just wanted to share this pretty moss.
These are coming up on their own on a closed logging road above and below 3,000 feet.
This was at 3,800 feet. Rhytidiopsis likes to grow above 2,000 feet. There was quite a lot of it up here.
These black lichens seem to come from the tree tops. I only ever find them on the snow where the contrast between the white snow and the black lichen makes it clear. This was at about 3,700 feet.
I think this is an invasive weed growing in the middle of an old logging road.
This old logging road on prospect ridge was destroyed for hiking and straw was brought in to reduce erosion but it brought it lots of weeds too. How ironic.
I wish they would turn these old roads into trails instead of digging them up and making them difficult to hike
Who needs a laxative? This is the tree for you. The bark and berries are potent.
I think this is a plum, but it could be a choke cherry too. This was in a neat little area at about 1,500 feet in elevation where it feels like spring is just starting.
At this elevation they are just starting to open up their leaves. This is a vine maple, not sure what the species name is..
It had the psuedo pit things and did not have a central cort so It's not Usnea..
Big kitty tracks going my way. I never see cougars but often see their tracks..
Oh my,what a nice surprise, the first bear I have seen in four years. This was a big one too.
