#stereocaulon

[lichenaday]

Stereocaulon ramulosum

Snow lichen

images: source

[wild-e-eep]

A soggy wooden post with an unusual topping: Stereocaulon dactylophyllum, I think. #FencepostOfTheWeek

iNaturalist observation 343608348

[drhoz]

#2291 - Stereocaulon sp. - Foam Lichen

Also known as Snow Lichens. The algal symbionts in this genus include green algae from the genera Asterochloris, Chloroidium, and Vulcanochloris, all in the Trebouxiophyceae. Asterochloris is fairly widespread as a lichen phytobiont.

Horopito, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

[botanizing]

tundra texture tuesday

What a combo this week! Cetraria nivalis (white leafy), Stereocaulon sp. (white popcorn-like), and a couple Cladonia species (white treelike and brown spikes).

[lichenaday]

Stereocaulon arcticum

Arctic foam snow lichen, Vikurbreyskja

I mentioned before that cutting my teeth on Icelandic lichen ID had skewed my opinions on what a "common" lichen is. Well, I am back in Iceland for the next few weeks to conduct field work and was like, "I should share one my favorite Icelandic lichens!" and so I google it and there are like, hardly any pictures of it? No pictures on iNaturalist? And am I like, "but it's everywhere . . . right?" Nope, just the Arctic. As you would guess. So anyway, I now have a new goal on this field trip to take some lovely pictures of S. arcticum so that the world can see how gorgeous she is! The first and last 2 pictures here I took near Laugarvatn, IS, in 2024.

images: source | source | source

[lichenaday]

Met this fun little cluster of guys in south Iceland :)

Ahh, a region I know pretty damn well, allowing me to confidently claim that this is Cladonia borealis. And the white fluffy guy growing next to it is most likely Stereocaulon alpinum. They really stand out on endless sea of green moss, don't they? So beautiful!

[lichenaday]

Stereocaulon japonicum

images: source

[lichenaday]

Stereocaulon vesuvianum 

Variegated foam lichen

Ahhh Stereocaulon, the light of my life, the bane of my existence. These variable little motherfuckers should not be so difficult to distinguish from one another, but they just really really are. S. vesuvianum in particular should be fairly straightforward: it has long, unbranched pseudopodetia (the stalks), dark-centered, button-like phyllocladia (those little warty segments on the stalks), globose soredia, dark, wrinkly cephalodia (thallus structures that store a cyanobacterial, secondary photobiont), and dark brown apothecia. These all sound like nice, discrete characteristics, right? hehehe, nope. Suddenly you are looking at it and wait some of the pseudopodetia are pointing up and some are pointing down and some have branches but most don't and is that a dark center of the phyllocladia or just dirt and wait didn't I see soredia a minute ago where are they and I swear those apothecia and cephalodia are changing color right before my eyes and they are all different and and AND. . . yeah, welcome to my life. If you ever want to give the wacky world of Stereocaulon ID a try, you can find S. vesuvianum and others growing on metallic rock and stonework in upland, arctic, and alpine areas, as well as haunting my nightmares.

images: source | source | source

info: source | source | source