Scale

Did your rain bucket tip the scale? Well, we certainly did. Though not as much as forecasted. However I am not going to complain with our 0.6″! Hope everyone got a nice amount!

Earthscale (Placidium)! This genus can be recognized by the gray to brown squamulose scales. Most of the species we have can be found on the ground like this one. They attached by either loose bundles of hyphae or sometimes by rhizines. Rhizines are a lichen’s version of a holdfast.

Fishscale (Psora)! The Psora genus looks similar to the above Earthscale. However many are often pruinose (the white stuff on the edges in this case). Some species will be frosted totally with the pruinose. Pruina is a powdery deposit of calcium oxalate or pigment crystals, dead tissue, or a mixture of the two. This one is mixed with some Earthscale. Tentatively I would go with Bordered Scale (Psora decipiens) because of the slightly upturned margins.
A damp Yellow Scale (Psora icterica). So it is more yellowish when dry.
Moreover the Yellow Scale will glow a yellow-orange under the UV light!

Now you may be getting more lichen stuff in the near future as I actually have started keying some that I have collected again. 🙂

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

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