Lepraria neglecta - Zoned Dust Lichen
I spent some time with these little dudes a few days ago at the Wissahickon Valley Park off Forbidden Drive a few days ago. I took pictures of a bunch of different lichen species that day, and for whatever reason these really appealed to me, though I suppose in one way or another they all do.
Zoned Dust lichens are ascomycetes symbionts, or "sac fungi." Actually, around 42% of ascomycota can form lichenized fungi and almost all fungal symbionts of lichens are ascomycota. Anyway, they are grey dust lichens with foliose type edges. The shape is very distinct... they sort of remind me of little celestial looking things; like little starbursts of lichen awesomeness. This is the only rock I found them on that day, although the Wissahickon is loaded with different species and I was able to photograph numerous other rock substrate lichens that day.
In other news-- the semester is rapidly drawing to a close. Of this I am quite pleased. While I am not looking forward to picking up more hours at my "jobby" job, I am looking forward to spending more time with my internships and with the Zoo Project. I have a huge list of species that I have to get cuttings of for both Fairmount Park and the arboretum, and I'm hoping to get a huge chunk of that done next Saturday. I am perhaps most excited about propagating Viburnum farreri in hopes I can snag a cutting for my mom's garden, as winter interest there is lacking. Even better would be Chimonanthus praecox-- anyone know where I can get me some of that?
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