lilyserrao's Favorites

Found in a sandy pool left behind by high tide. A mere baby, when the water was shallow it walked along on its fins. When the water was deeper, it swished its tail from side to side to propel itself forward.

Bartram Trail, Franklin, North Carolina

Note the numerous apothecia (disc-like reproductive structures) and their fringed edges.

I just noticed that whilst the thallus of this species radiates up the tree trunk equally well as laterally and downwards, and that pattern of growth helps differentiate it from another lichen with fringed apothecia, Anatypchia palmulata which has thalli that tend to follow gravity downwards, and to a much less extent, up the tree or rock.