"The Trouble with Lichen"

[Bruce Williams]

...is it's catching!

This colony has lived on the eastern slope of my aluminium greenhouse for more than 10 years. The yellow "sky" is in fact the out-of-focus leaves of a yellow leaved Locust Tree.

Photo taken this afternoon - any chance of identifying it for me Ken/Doug/(anyone)?

Pic hand-held with Minolta A2 - single shot as too precarious a position to risk multiple shots (too much glass and wobbly foothold).

Bruce

*with apologies to John Wyndham

[rjlittlefield]

Bruce,

This is beautiful! The low angle of view and the water reflection really give this picture a feel of "Suddenly I was there among the little things!"

How big are these things anyway? I just realized, I can't tell whether the towers are 1/4" high, 1/2", 1", or even smaller or bigger than that.

Thanks,
--Rik

[MacroLuv]

WooHoo! Unbelivable! How did you get that angle? Digging the ditch? Confess... confess...
Somebody could think that photograph was taken by ant.
Greenhouse? Oh! ok... ok...
Great photograph! And I like reflections too.
Looks like a Cladonia lichen fruiting body.
Cladonia chlorophaea maybe?
Don't take it serious, I'm not an expert.

[beetleman]

I want to know how the thing is growing on the glass...is their a piece of old wood there? Great DOF in this shot Bruce. I would say a Cladonia ssp Very nice

[Bruce Williams]

Hi Nikola - thanks for the suggestion on identity - I've had a poke around the net searching on Cladonia and I'm sure you're right that it is a Cladonia species (diversa is another possible - maybe?). As to the low point-of-view; well the lichen is growing on the outside of the roof of the greenhouse so I removed a glass pane and poked my head through

Hi Rik - thanks for your comments. Well I guess the tallest podetia are maybe an inch high. It's dark now but I'll check tomorrow and if I'm way out I'll let you know. The "water" reflection is (as I'm sure you figured) the glass of the greenhouse - I've just rotated the camera to the same angle as the glass so giving the appearance of a horizontal horizon.

Bruce

[DaveW]

I am told some people actually clean their greenhouse glass every year Bruce and so would not get 10 year old lichens growing on them!

Must confess I don't, but then my biggest greenhouse is only two years old.

DaveW

[Bruce Williams]

Well Doug, 10 to 15 years ago there was a small, dense type of moss growing between the glass and the aluminium - it didn't cause a leak and I quite liked it (so I left it alone) The moss died and I just never got round to digging out the small mounds of dead moss, root and soil - and the rest (as they say) is history - now I have lichen!

So I guess that takes us back at least 15 years Dave ...and is that right, people actually CLEAN their greenhouse glass

Bruce