So we were now heading up the hill. All along I had a place that I want to reach. However, we were certainly not in hurry to get there. There was so much to see. Of course, that meant going slow.
Draba is such a small plant. In fact it rarely gets over six inches tall.
However, make sure you take time to get down to admire its tiny flowers!
A lot of the rocks on the western units are composite types. And many will have lots of lichens on them. This one had a bonus feature.
A depression for a puddle of water!
Close up of some the colorful crustose lichens on the rock above. The rock had many different color of pebbles embedded as well.
The holey Prickly Pear (Opuntia) pad!
So at this point in the hike, we were at the bottom of the hill.
A lovely snag stood at the top!
Reaching the top, we now were among the rocks and trees.
A fossilized creature if I ever saw one. LOL Indeed, maybe a new species.;-)
Mosses were covering some of the tree branches. Jeanne and I both stopped to look.
I was searching for lichens and found a lone Green Lacewing egg. Always a fun find.
Tortula pagorum (syn Syntrichia laevipila) moss was surrounded by the black jelly lichens. Many of the black colored lichens have cyanobacteria as their partners. Most foliose, crustose, and fruticose lichens have algae partners. However, to make things more complicated (for humans) some will have both. 🙂
While Jeanne had her face in the mosses, I found the tiny Phaeophyscia ciliata lichen. It has lots of cilia (whitish hairs) on the edges of the lobes.
I got to know some of the draba down here in the Davis Mountains this week such an unassuming species most people ignore
I have really grown to love the little stuff.
The snag looks like a bird. The moss on tree is gorgeous. So many good things.
Yes, it was a cool day of finds!
I enjoy hiking at the speed of reverence. There’s always so much to see!
A beautiful way to say it!
I heard Kim Conrow from NPSOT use that term and have adopted it. It fits.
Lovely lichens and everything!