sammyisafuzzydog's Favorites

• soralia labriform, lip-shaped
• lower surface ecorticate/smooth
• lower surface unpigmented

• rhizines cream-colored and thyrsiform (neither flared nor branched)
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  Heterodermia Key: https://sweetgum.nybg.org/images3/250/135/op6p1.pdf
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  The occurrence on rock is unusual, apparently.

Substrate is lumps of clay on bare, finely graveled ground, with hardpan underneath. Wildflowers present in this area indicate mafic soils. The area of 1st photo is less than 1 sq inch. It rained all day today, so the pics look especially wet.

Honey yellow caps with central depression, gills strongly decurrent, long wiry thin stipe with a somewhat furry tuft of brownish mycelium at the base. Growing scattered but singley on needles, cones and woody conifer debris,

Brilliant to behold, found the whole year 'round, easily recognized in the field, and also easy to identify by the combination of such a bright reddish color or red-spotted surface, reddish rhizomorphs, & the characteristic red-orange staining of the substrate; here growing in a boreal area on a fallen limb (conifer), the broken end, the first photos with natural daylight, and the last two photos using a 365nm UV light to show fluorescence

• perforate apothecia with sorediate rim
• abundant black marginal cilia [as per Parmotrema hypotropum]
• sorediate clumps at the lobe tip [as per Parmotrema hypotropum]
• sorediate clumps scattered near the lobe tips and onto the main thallus [as per Parmotrema simulans ; in this case these appear to be nascent apothecia, so rarely seen in Parmotrema hypotropum (only one other example of which I am aware: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195865352) that this may be usual for when apothecia are produced in that species]
• white margin of the lower surface [as per Parmotrema hypotropum]
• upper surface does not appear to be reticulate maculate, so not like Parmotrema simulans in that respect, again like Parmotrema hypotropum

Serendipity is a curious thing.

On two separate twigs of two different trees, the same two species of lichens grew side-by-side. Happenstance is that I found both twigs within a few minutes time, close enough together that the circumstance of collocation was not lost upon me. So, I present the two twigs together despite it being against usual protocol of observation management.

Submitted for your consideration,
Pertusaria (species as yet unknown to me) on the left,
and Ochrolechia africana on the right.

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.

For the Parmotrema subrigidum, last photo, cf. inaturalist.org/observations/196247863
For the Frosty Saucer (Ochrolechia africana), last photo, cf. inaturalist.org/observations/196249089
For the Bumpy Rim-Lichen (Lecanora hybocarpa), last photo, cf. inaturalist.org/observations/196249093

Some type of puffball /earthball but lacking a base! Young, firm fruiting body, interior already purplish. I let it dry & added photos a week later. Thick peridium now visible in dried state but doesn't seem as warted as usual.

On Convallaria majalis, lily-of-the valley.

I am thinking this leaf streak is probably the result of the fungal pathogen, Aureobasidium microstictum, based on what I read here:

https://extension.psu.edu/lily-of-the-valley-convallaria-diseases

where the author says:

"Small water-soaked spots develop which later have brown streaks with yellow halos--these spots often form from the leaf tip downward. Infected leaves die prematurely."

Please everyone, bear in mind that none of my fungal pathogen IDs are based on lab work -- no microscopy and no culturing. The IDs are all based solely on the macroscopic appearance of the lesions on the plants.

As a result, many of my fungal/bacterial/viral IDs may in fact be incorrect.

Most similar to Rhizoplaca glaucophana, but differs from that species in having apothecia at the central region of the thallus instead of at the thallus periphery.

On exposed bedrock in the channel of the Haw River. So far, every population I have found is located thusly, and within 50 to 100 cm of the normal flow level, but below the usual flood level.

Who can ID to species this entomopathic fungus that attacks and kills, a phenomenon that started when it invaded the grasshopper, eventually multiplying and becoming master, forcing the Zombie Grasshopper to crawl up to die as the insect-eating fungus (collectively called Zombie Fungi, for the way they infect, and ultimately kill, their hosts) matured, and then fungal stalk-like structures burst through weak points (joints) in the grasshopper’s exoskeleton and exploded out of the host, for the fungus needs the victim to take it high enough so the fungus' spores will blow in the wind and spread most efficiently, an environment favorable to their dispersal, a good spore-release position on the underside of a twig a few of feet above the ground

These parasitic fungi usually attach to the external body surface of insects in the form of microscopic spores (usually asexual, mitosporic spores, conidia); under the right conditions of temperature and (high) humidity, these spores germinate, grow as hyphae and colonize the insect's cuticle, and they bore through the exoskeleton by way of enzymatic hydrolysis (use of a specialized pressing structure called an appressorium, an organ that forms a needle-like peg pressing against the cuticle and puncturing it), reaching the insect’s body cavity (hemocoel), where the fungal cells proliferate in the host body cavity, usually as walled hyphae or in the form of wall-less protoplasts (depending on the fungus involved), and once inside, the fungus starts to grow mycelia (the vegetative part of a fungus composed of long strands of hair-like hyphae that worm their way through the insect’s innards, feeding on tissues but not killing its host, not at least yet or quickly), and the fungus can then absorb nutrients from its host and grow until a critical fungal mass develops, and then the Cordyceps moves to the insect’s head, where the fungal parasitoid forces its victim to climb to a prominent perch in a tree or shrub, causes it to clamp down tightly, and kills it, for the fungus, which has mostly consumed the insect’s inner workings by this point, prepares to reproduce, sending stem-like spikes called stroma to shoot from the victim’s body, capped by perithecia, until the insect bristles with these fungal fruiting bodies, the perithecia soon rupturing, releasing scores of windborne spores, the reason for the fungal reprogramming of the victim: to force it into a breezier location for successful spore dispersal

Our guided nature walk leader showed us a similar parasitic fungus, inaturalist.org/observations/158411706

Not the biggest leaf in the world but big (about a foot long) [Me in middle photo, to give perspective]

{Last photo: rhodendendron blooming in background, in case you are curious}

Compare to these other large-leaf native North Carolina magnolia species: I invite you to my Observations
• Fraser Magnolia, Magnolia fraseri https://inaturalist.ca/observations/66239567
• Magnolia fraseri var. fraseri https://inaturalist.ca/observations/65510390
• Bigleaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla https://inaturalist.ca/observations/66184852

I helped it finish meandering across the sidewalk, so it wouldn't get stepped on and squashed.

Dominant eastern Piedmont xystodesmid (a "cherry millipede"), two color patterns (a disparity around the Deep-Cape Fear Rivers), typically with yellow paranota (lateral segmental expansions on the dorsa), a yellow middorsal spot on the anterior margin of the collum or 1st segment, and yellow middorsal spots on the caudalmost 3-5 segments (in central NC south of the Deep/Cape Fear Rivers a different, undescribed species has yellow middorsal splotches on essentially every segment).

A millipede's body is divided into 2 distinct parts, the head and the trunk. The head houses the antennae, mouthparts, & eyes (composed of ocelli, or simple eyes; usually multiple ocelli compose an eye, but certain millipede orders lack eyes entirely). The trunk is composed of several body rings. The 1st body ring (collum segment), directly behind the head, is legless, the next 4 body rings each having 1 pair of legs. All remaining body rings, save the very last few, have 2 pairs of legs. The number of the apodous body rings (lacking legs), can vary. Many millipedes have ozopores (defense glands) on the sides of most of their body rings, and produce a chemical defense exuded through these ozopores to deter predators or other curious animals.

On bare soil humus on a slope to a creek in mixed hardwood forest, on a warm day following rain showers. Chromelosporium fulvum has erect, septate conidiophores with an unbranched main axis bearing 7 to 12 sporogenous ampullae, the spore-bearing heads, needle-like clusters. Conidia develop simultaneously on denticles located on the surface of each ampulla. The fungus first appears as fine, white, aerial mycelium. The spores form in a few days, changing the color to light yellow or golden brown; the thick, white, fluffy mycelial edges remain. The globose conidia are lightly pigmented tan-brown and cover each ampulla at maturity. The mold, easily air-borne, is opportunistic, and not readily tolerating other organisms.

4th photo - my drinking water was poured onto the moss to allow it to hydrate

• leaf cycle-shaped
• no midrib on leaf
• no pleats on leaf
• no marginal teeth on leaf
• leaf 1-1.5 mm long

Either

• Hypnum pallescens synonym Jochenia pallescens ; or
• Hypnum fauriei synonym Pseudohygrohypnum fauriei