#thysanothecium

[lichenaday]

Thysanothecium scutellatum

This lichen has a primary thallus of minute, pale green-yellow to tan squamules and a secondary thallus of . . . bizarre pseudopodetia. Like I don't know how to describe these. They look like Cladonia podetia that got smashed on accident and then someone tried to reform them and kinda gave up. One page describes them as "formed of horny, cartilaginous nerve- like strands between which corticate granules and medullary hyphae are exposed." Like, sure. I guess. It produces vaguely fan-shaped apothecia at the ends of the pseudopodetia, which are pale pink to yellow-tan in color. thallus. T. scutellatum is native to Australasia, and has been found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan. It colonizes dead and charred wood and bark, and so is often abundant in woodlands prone to seasonal fire.

images: source

info: source | source

[drhoz]

#3480 - Thysanothecium scutellatum

Found in the same parts of Australia as hookeri, but also in New Zealand, and New Caledonia. Unlike that species, it is lignicolous and grows on wood, preferrably wood that has been charred by fire. No shortage of that in Australia.

Various locations around Perth.

Paganoni Reserve, Karnup, Perth

[drhoz]

#3479 - Thysanothecium hookeri

One of three in the genus, all endemic to Australia, and the first genus of lichen based on Australian specimens. It was first collected by James Drummond (him again!) in the 1840s, and named after William Jackson Hooker, the first director of Kew Gardens and Drummond's sponsor at the time.

The two common ones are very different in what they'll grow on. The ones above were growing on very crumbly soil at Lol Gray. Here it is growing on abandoned termite mounds, and chunks thereof, in Julimar State Forest.

Unlike its sister species Thysanothecium scutellatum, hookeri is terricolous, growing on soil, clay-cemented sand, termite mounds, anthills, and sandstone boulders. See the next post for the preferences of the other.

Lol Gray and Julimar State Forest.