At this point in the dry creek bed we were pretty much sticking together with Dale leading the way. He and Jeanne would call out each time they found another moss for collection.
And since they were getting the mosses, I stopped for the Goldeneye Lichen (Teloschistes exilis)!
And a lovely fruticose lichen, the Ramalina celastri! This and the Goldeneye above are both fruticose lichens. Meaning they are shrubby-like.
Going north-ish in the bed we were finding some mosses on the banks. Which is a great place to find bryophytes!
Thalloid liverwort hanging out with some mosses!
A few of Atrichium mosses were nestled in too.
The Common Woodsia (Woodsia obtusa) with the mosses. We actually didn’t find many ferns.
An ancient rock mask? LOL. 😉
The female mosquitoes (Culicidae) have short-haired antennae. The males will have plumose antennae. Texas has 85 known species of mosquitoes! Glad this gal was not hungry. 😉
The neon green-yellow Chrysothrix lichen always begs me to stop and look.
A hidden tree stump was covered with the Turkeytail shelf fungus.
Dale and Jeanne were heading to the cars. I was close behind.
But I had to look under one more log where I found a dozen of the Daddy Shortlegs (Opiliones). 🙂
Indeed it was a great day for hunting bryophytes! Furthermore I would even say perfect weather on Wednesday (20th) for just about anything outdoors!
One more thing, Dale has a project on iNaturalist called
I love the light in the photo of Jeanne and Dale walking away. It makes the trees just glow yellow. Fall is finally coming!
I believe it has arrived ☺️
By the way, I beta tested an early iteration of the paper microscope. I wonder if I still have that somewhere?