Pixie Cups in the Enchanted Forest

Tramping about in the spring woods, I was excited to look down and see this fruiting lichen on a rock next to a small pond. A little research on the net identifed it as cladonia carneola, also known as "crowned pixie cup." According to http://www.lichen.com/index.html this lichen has a "squamulose" base. Squamulose lichens have scales called squamules that are usually small and overlap. The cups, called "podentia," are fruiting structures to dispense spores. Fruiticose lichens are more three dimensional--they grow upward or hang down.

Lichens grow extremely slowly. Some lichens are thought to be the oldest living things on earth. I found out that lichens are symbiotic organisms. The dominant partner is a fungus and so incapable of making its own food. It has to partner with another organism that can perform photosynthesis, such as algae or cyanobacteria. some fungi partner with both organisms at once. The spores that are emitted from these cups will have to seek out partners in order to survive. Kind of gives new meaning to the concept of "codependency" doesn't it?

Part of the thrill for me in learning natural history is with the new vocabulary words. How wonderful are these? Squamulose, fruiticose, podentia! And I'm loving the Latin-cladonia carneola, can't you hear the Italian lilt in those syllables?