Only skipper species I viewed in the several hours of walking about today. First of the season for Algoma. Species #72 for 2024 Butterflies of Algoma.
large open area with great number of Wild Carrot plants. These females were moving about quite rapidly and at times flew down to small, fresh Wild Carrot stalks. Did not view egg laying, did not view any males in the brief time I was at this location.
@donhall59in - @bigpinesdaveeuler -- it took several visits but Canada Day was a lucky day. Located just south of the fifth tower (when counting the one at the parking lot as #1), there is a area with human trash on west side creating a small opening in the canopy.
My other records for this colony are from 2017.
not sure. wet. on fence post.
This lichen is fully hydrated (3 inches of rain last night), and yet remains gray, and has not turned green as it would if it were Physcia americana.
EDIT - I forgot to note: on rock/saxicolous/epipetric.
In an Oak-Hickory woodland with a few Pines, Pinus taeda and Pinus echinata.
This lichen is so infrequently observed, I decided to post another observation from the same rusting steel pole as my other two observations of the same day. I found this nice rosette in accompaniment of a Xanthoparmlia cumberlandia I had photographed, here intruding at the upper left in this photo cropped from the original.
EDIT: Link to my 2 other observations - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/197414055
1st photo - loose fragment from forest floor beside the rock, the fragment presumably dislodged by the Squirrel that had used the rock as place to shuck and eat its Hickory nuts, the evidence I cleaned-up so as to present a clean specimen for photography.
Epipetric/saxicolous, not the usual epiphytic habit on tree bark.
At the 6 o'clock position, there appears to be an apothecium with an orange hue to the disc/cup, and a lobulate or phyllidiate rim.
Abundant pycnidia.
Hydrated condition from today's rain. Yesterday the lichen escaped my attention, so the desiccated color is presumably a dull brown or gray similar to the bark of the Loblolly Pine, Pinus taeda, branch on which it was found.
Limestone rockface in shaded forest.
Found on a common coyway growing in a rainforest on the delta of the baker river, near tortel. Growing at 5m above sea level, and between 1-4 meters on trees. The “leaves” of the lichen were up to 4 cm wide and had a pale light mint green color on top and a creamy white color underneath with large orange brown spots. The “leaves” were also very curled and textured, giving them volume away from the trunk of the tree although some of them above the rest of the leaves were flush against the tree. I wonder if the orange/brown patches on the underside are to release spores, and if not what their function is
The observation is for the protrusions on the upper surface of this Dermatocarpon (for which a separate observation has been made: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192663915).
I conjecture that they are the result of a lichenicolous fungus, but that speculation is not affirmed by the Flora of Lichenicolous Fungi, 2022, the contents of which do not include the genus Dermatocarpon.
EDIT, 30 November 2023, 6:46pm Eastern Standard Time: Flora of Lichenicolous Fungi, 2022, pages 265-6, does have Tremella umbilicariae, known to parasitize species of Umbilicaria, of which Dermatocarpon is a related genus.
Matches the description of Physconia subaquila.
1st photo - desiccated condition/color
2nd photo - hydrated condition with millimeter scale
3rd photo - larger view
4th photo - rock face with many large colonies (the largest gathering and of the largest colonies that I have ever seen)
5th photo - smaller rosette
Two underwater individuals in Sages Ravine Brook, 6 inches submerged in removed eddies under boulders on lodged rocks. Undisturbed headwaters. Mature hemlock/deciduous forest. pH 6.9. 49.5 deg F. EC: 4-10.
On a Red Maple.
2nd photo more clearly shows the granular cup nascent apothecia of this lichen Family.
Agave schidigera x lechuguilla-x-lophantha
In 2015, an Agave schidigera flowered in my garden, and onto its flowers I placed pollen of Agave lechuguilla x lophantha donated by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery & Juniper Level Botanic Garden.
This is an offset from the best seedling of that cross. Juniper Level Botanic Garden retains the resplendent original seedling.
This has proven to be perfectly winter hardy (USDA Zone 7b), and does not suffer from the high humidity or heavy rainfall of the Eastern North Carolina climate.
2nd photo = 11 July 2024
Hand made Agave hybrids
reduce some of the collection pressure on wild agaves
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https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/mjpapay/88638-agave-pseudosalmiana
On a mid-channel bedrock exposure in the Haw River. This species occurs only on the tallest rocks at a height that is less frequently inundated - that is to say it is normally well above the most densely populated Peltula euploca zone.
On the trunk of a wind-felled Carya tomentosa.