Wet day
It was a wet drippy day and only in the mid 30’s today.
I tried to catch a water droplet fall. This is the first of many shots.
A little further along and you can see the reflection of tree branches in the droplet.
Almost!
Dropped 🙂
I tried again on another droplet on a Bois D’arc tree.
Going!
Gone! My fingers were too cold to keep trying. Maybe I will try again on a warmer rainy day?
The moss is sucking up the water and standing to attention. Mosses do not have roots like plants. They do absorb water through their leaves. Mosses do have little root-looking parts called rhizoids that hold them to the substrate. Using a capillary action, rhizoids draw up water between threads also.
A lot of foliose lichens get greener with water. This is because of the green algae layer just under the upper cortex (which is sorta like an outer skin). Lichens absorb their water by soaking it through the cortex. Some lichens like this one pictured here have rhizines (which look similar to a root) to hold it to the substrate.
One of the tests to help identify lichens is to see if they fluoresces under UV (black light). There are several different lichens in this photo. Three different lichen species are fluorescing different shades. The leafier ones are just purple from the UV light and not fluorescing.
Keep looking!
Nothing prettier than mosses and lichens. Thanks and happy new year.
That was the first thing I noticed. The reflections of branches!
We had sleet that turned to snow. A few surfaces kept the snow until morning. Like the dead tree that was horizontal and the pile of cedar mulch. We ended up with rain, finely. Total of an inch with the sleet and snow. We are nice and muddy now.
I may be out of touch over the next who knows how long. Mama has entered into last stages. The hospice nurse thinks a few days at best. We'll be driving the hour and a half to San Antonio a lot now.
While Paul & Isabel were here for 5 days, we got to watch a fox sleeping several times during the day in our barn. It lay there with eyes open but didn't seem to hear or see us. What a neat experience for all 4 of us to get to see a fox only a few feet away in the rafters over the corn crib of the barn. Sure was tempting to tweak its tail when it hung between the boards just a couple feet away from us. But I didn't.
Kathy,
This is such a tough time for you and your family. I will be thinking of y'all. Wish I could give you a hug. So I am sending virtual hugs for now.
The fox! What a treat! And yes, I can see you being tempted to tweak its tail LOL.
Take care and be safe.