Part II…Continuing on with yesterday grasslands adventure!

Crustose lichen with moss. Some crustose lichens have their fruiting bodies embedded in the thallus (the pale white-green warty crust in this case) that are called apothecia. The apothecia can either be cup or disk-like. There are many variations to thallus and fruiting bodies which can be pretty confusing.

Another pareidolia…wood debris that looked like a shoe. 

A moss topped ridge. The brownish stuff on the moss is its sporophytes (fruiting bodies).

This moss was very interesting to me. The caps on the sporophytes were hairy. The moss’ short stem had few leaves and were at the base of sporophytes.

Mushrooms!

Tiny white mushrooms with ruffled edged caps. These guys were tiny; only 6-7 mm (1/4″)  high.

These are both Purple cliff-brake. The leaflet shape is just different. The  longer leaflets show the sori (where the spores are stored).

A crustose lichen on the rocks. Sounds like the name of a drink LOL.

Another crustose lichen!

Someone made a meal of a Cedar Waxwing. Most people can see the yellow tips on the tail. The red tips on the wing feathers are harder to spot. Yes, the feathers were tucked in the bark so they could be posed for the picture in case you were wondering. 🙂  It was windy.

Deer tracks!

Raccoon tracks!

These shrubby fruticose lichens are Ramalina (the pale green one) and Goldeye Lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus).

Cool Post Oak (Quercus stellata) root going down in the gully.

Tan fungus that looks like ostrich leather from distance. 

The little black circles are actually insect holes that were ringed with some kind of shiny black stuff.

Closer look.

Turban lichen (Cladonia peziziformis) 

This is like the Marilyn Monroe mushroom!