A fun collaboration led by Alan Fryday, @ddiazescandon.bsky.social, Tracy Thai and several colleagues from the Grootbos Nature Reserve in South Africa, with a bonus revisit of the class Lichinomycetes plus a novel, very strange ITS insertion link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Good times at MSA @uehlinglab.bsky.social @fungaljess.bsky.social

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

A big revision for the Lecanora saligna group -- six new species in Lecanoropsis. This is a common group of crustose lichens in western North America and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.

I'm happy to share that @wyowildbotany.bsky.social and I have published a report on the status of federally listed and recently delisted plants in WA. We report on population trends and synthesize research on some of Washington's rarest plants. www.dnr.wa.gov/publications...

"What has made our universities the greatest in the world, however, is not just the quality of our undergraduate education, but our ability to fulfill one of the central quests of modern life: the production of new knowledge thru discoveries that change the world." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/o...

Pannaria oregonensis is a rare species endemic to moist lowland habitats of northwest North America, seen here on Hooker’s willow in a costal dune complex on the central Oregon coast.

Orchid Bee, Colombia #BlueMonday Males (like this) collect volatile chemicals, from orchids and other sources, to create complex scents to impress females. They collect chemicals with their front legs, transfer them to the middle legs, then finally into storage pockets in the enlarged rear legs. 🐙🌿📷

The #ElectoralCollege is #DEI for #RedStates

Gabura insignis is a unique hypercoastal cyanolichen in the Pacific Northwest distinguished by its wrinkled warty isidiate thallus that greatly expands when wet, seen here in a dry state growing on conifer twigs at the mouth of the Salmon River, Lincoln County Oregon.

Letharia columbiana is a common endemic wolf lichen in the inland Northwest. It is distinguished by the chartreuse colored thallus from vulpinic acid and the prominent brown apothecia, seen here near Cottonwood Meadow Lake in Fremont-Winema National Forest, Lake County, Oregon.

Pseudocyphellaria rainierensis is a specklebelly lichen restricted to ancient stands of old-growth and endemic to the Pacific Northwest temperate rainforest, seen here along the Ohanapecosh River, Lewis County, Washington.

Parmelina coleae is a epiphytic lichen characteristic of the Mediterranean type climate of the California Floristic Province, seen here growing on an ancient Garry oak at the northern edge of its range at Upper Table Rock in Jackson County, Oregon.

Ricasolia amplissima ssp. amplissima occurs only as a dendriscocauloid cyanomorph in southern Oregon, seen here growing on a horizontal branch of an ancient Garry oak in a lichen rich oak savannah near Antelope Creek in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain of Jackson County.

Cetrelia cetrarioides is an uncommon rag lichen living on red alder in low elevation riparian forests in the Pacific Northwest. Distinguished by pseudocyphellae on the upper & lower surfaces & elongate soralia along smooth thallus margins. Seen here along Mill Creek in downtown Turner, Oregon.

Nephroma tropicum is a commonly encountered kidney lichen in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, distinguished among local Nephroma species by the abundant marginal lobules. Seen here along the Nisqually River in the Longmire Springs area of Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.

We've returned one of England’s rarest lichens to its historic home🏠 Scrambled Egg Lichen has been reintroduced to Norfolk from Cornwall via a trial translocation🍳 Thanks to Cornwall Wildlife Trust & Norfolk Wildlife Trust, with funding from Natural England Learn more 👉 bit.ly/4hWieOP

Excited to see how this goes. I helped the Plantlife team dig in the thalli…

Spend your money as if it were your vote tomorrow Feb. 28 (and everyday in my mind). Our democracy and our economy (our ability to make enough to survive) depends on it.

I often imagine crustose lichens as alien landscapes. A close up pic of a Porpidia species #lichen. #Newfoundland, Canada. #fungi

Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science

How about the specimen of Sphaerophorus! I am learning towards S. venerabilis, but you can set us straight. It's from Mary's Peak in the Coastal Range of Oregon.

Hypogymnia duplicata, old-growth yellow cedar swamp, Dingford Creek trail, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA.

And I though Lycoperdon perlartum (Common puffball) was saprobic. This study shows it forms ECM relationships with populus and may improve their resistance to drought. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Pseudocyphellaria norvegica has an upper surface with distinctive slightly mauve punctiform soralia/soredia

So here is a recently observed specimen from Crater Lake National Park here in Oregon. Anyone want to put a name to it? I don't think this will be too hard. The Genus should be easy. And by the way, you gotta love your parks! #lichens #lichenologists #NPS #NationalParks

Blue Felt (Pectenia plumbea), Nova Scotia’s official lichen — found a couple yesterday on Red maples on swamp edges. Scallop shape tending towards circular, deep blue mat but frosty white at lobe tips, red apothecia with thin pale white margins. raised radial ridges on lobe surface. #lichen

Support for student/enthusiasts! NWL is offering ~10, $150 awards to help student/non-student lichen folk with need presenting talk or poster. Must also be registered with NWSA for the meeting. Have abstract ready before applying-Deadline 2/17 northwest-lichenologists.wildapricot.org/event-5957694

Wow, they found fungal hyphae inside the sheaths of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria! Usually with these types of symbiosis it's the other way around, with bacteria growing inside their host. This is supercool!🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Roccella tuberculata one of several litmus lichens found on the Macaronesian islands, seen here on volcanic rock at Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira, Portugal

In the new series “Common Side Effects,” a scientist discovers a mushroom that can cure any ailment, but powerful people want to keep it a secret. Show creators Steve Hely and Joe Bennett join us to talk about the science that inspired this fungal drama.

ABLS Field Research Awards are now open! Check out the details at www.abls.org

Take this class!

The many beautiful forms and shapes of Hypogymnia imshaugii group.

Hypogymnia duplicata is a luxurious tube lichen endemic to cool moist coastal forests in northwestern North America, seen here growing on shore pine in a peat bog near Neck Lake, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

Paper alert! A #lichen is more than meets the eye!

How does a 🍄 genome change in evolutionary transition to life on another 🍄 ? Congrats @ccgallen.bsky.social on first results on this strange Sporothrix we started studying during the pandemic. TLDR: +-1/3 of genome lost in switch to life in matrix of another fungus, but intriguing CAZymes gained

Usnea rubicunda is distinguished within the genus in the Pacific Northwest by its unique reddish orange color. Widespread in the tropics this species is uncommon further north, in Oregon it is confined to moist coastal forests. Seen here at Cape Lookout State Park in Tillamook County.

eDNA and traditional biocrust sampling each have blind spots for biodiversity but tell a similar ecological story of disturbance in Artemisia steppe. The Bryologist, 128(1):1-15 (2025). doi.org/10.1639/0007...

Is there a way to know how many lines are in a chart without individually counting them? I wanna know how many species are recognized as being in my province. The answer is sort of indirectly there, but there's no clear answer out there that I can find.

Ramalina menziesii, is a species endemic to the west coast of North America. It is easily distinguished by its unique netted pattern, seen here luxuriantly growing as an epiphyte on an ancient Garry oak in the Willamette Valley in northern Oregon.

Solorina spongiosa with its distinctly spongy external cephalodia, seen here in a roadside depression within a forested limestone area in the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska

Happy Saturday from the Hypogymnia bros. Hypogymnia austerodes (or another from the recently split complext) with Hypogymnia physodes. And other Usnea, Bryoria, Physcia and Lecanora (I believe) lichens. #HotStickSaturday #fungifriends 🌿

The latest from Kerry Knudsen et al. on Acarosporaceae from California. "We report 127 described species of Acarosporaceae for North America. We verified 62 species of Acarosporaceae from California." DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.112.138580

A pair of really interesting studies highlighting a new strategy for vaccine design: PROTAR vaccines. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... In this method, vaccine viruses are technically replication competent, but have their proteins with sequences...

The blood-brain barrier can prevent therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain. Researchers in #ScienceAdvances have identified a peptide that increases the barrier’s permeability, showing potential for more effective drug delivery to treat brain diseases. scim.ag/4jhnWf6

Vagrant Rhizoplaca get a deeper look. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Calicium poculatum and Ramboldia canadensis are described as new species occurring on Larix laricina. doi.org/10.1017/S002...