February 1st was a great day to make a return trip to the Dixon Water Foundation. The high temp for that day was 69. Sounds perfect and it was!
First find was this bone!
We were starting above the grotto. The limestone rocks have some nice crustose lichens!
Mosses were clumping with the grass!
Here is an easily missed lichen. It really looks dead, but don’t let it fool you. I am not certain of its genus yet, but I hope to get to it soon. Update: This is Dermatocarpon americanum.
Moss!
Peering down into the grotto! And the Greenbriar is still loaded with its black berries.
Standing back for an overview of the grotto from above. The grotto is about 40 to 50 feet across.
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Another lichen that may fool you that it is dead.
Just add water to see it turn green! It is Placidium arboreum. As the species name implies, it prefers trees for its home. I have found it on different species of trees. This one happened to be on a Hackberry. So many more to treasures to share from Dixon in the next posts.
Very cool sneaky lichens!
Love that grotto. Beautiful.