Vezdaea cf. aestivalis When the apothecia of this fungus touch iodine they turn blue. I would rather they turn blue in something less messy like KOH but it is what it is.

I think science authors should quickly type in the anatomical terms they plan to use into a search bar and ensure that it's a searchable term before using it, OR include photos. I use my imagination to infer meaning way too much.

Rustwort - Nowellia curvifolia This plant is as common as it is tiny. It's on a lot of fallen, debarked conifer logs in humid areas but isn't eye catching until you're already looking closely.

Some dank green fungi to celebrate today's festivities.

Just noticed a pretty great youtuber last night and wanted to give him a shoutout. He covers a lot of the fungal basics that I tend to talk about, but in video format and more in depth. Highly recommend him. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC6...

Will spare you the photos, but for some reason I didn't realize that otters can live pretty much anywhere in the province. The location won't mean much to people outside NS, but I just saw a roadkilled otter near the high point of the Cobequid pass toll section a few streams before the flag.

Looks like we're past the halfway point of repacketing the lichen samples at the herbarium into smaller packets. Was a more monumental task than I expected it to be when we started last year

Looks like a lovely day to go to Wentworth

Elf Ears Lichen - Normandina pulchella A cyan coloured lichen with a green algal photobiont. Surrounded by green and black cyanolichens. Cyanolichens named after the bacteria inside of them called blue-green algae. Someday I will post for a day without throwing shade at common naming conventions

I just watched a lichen video on Youtube which claimed that aquatic lichens are not yet known. BEHOLD!!!!!!!! ISN'T IT GLORIOUS?

Phyllotopsis nidulans - Stinking Orange Oyster I consider this common name to be slanderous. All of the non-rotten ones I have smelled smelled lovely.

Closer to the 2 month mark. This photo of fingerlings getting started was from June 12th, 2020.

Entoloma cf. strictius - Straight Stalked Entoloma One of the first terrestrial gilled mushrooms which will come out for the year, typically in the second half of May locally. I think whoever decided the common name is a troll who just wanted to confuse people who think common names are easier.

I sometimes get asked "what is the ecological role of lichens?" The simplest answer is that limiting photosynthesis to leaves in the treetops would leave wasted space in the ecosystem. It's also food for arthropods, which aid in pollination and sporulation. It also traps moisture.

#Lichen -wise, it seems to be Hypotrachyna, possibly H. afrorevoluta. But when I looked more carefully back at home, the main question became WHAT THE BEETLE? Know very little about beetles, it looks like one of the 'click beetles' (Elateridae), but I can’t narrow down much further

Rough Speckled Shield Lichen - Punctelia rudecta One of the more common lichens around. If you were to see the same thing but with lobules instead of isidia, now that would be a real goodie.

I was gifted some interesting mushrooms yesterday. I am also craving soup. Will keep you updated on if this amounts to anything.

My weekend in 4 photos Got to try morel mushrooms for the first time. I've heard the cultivated ones aren't as good but they were still very good to me. I also saw some nice flora and learned my jeep doesn't like hills.

Accidentally gave myself a black eye last night. Was trying to jump up and grab a Hemlock branch to show someone the difference between it and fir. The camera around my neck also jumped up when I did, and smacked me in the corner of the eye. Sort of looks like I'm wearing makeup

Once again I am stumped by an unusual moss. This one seems to be swallowing some Leucodon whole.

Crustose lichens are quite a poorly studied topic. Even when people do take an interest in studying lichen distributions, people tend to stick to things like foliose lichens which they can usually ID from photos. Things requiring a sample and microscopy to ID deter even the lichen lovers.

Spicy Mustard-Rosette - Pyxine sorediata Named that due to the colour of its inner flesh. None of which is visible in my photos.

Was just offered a free week long moss identification course as a thank you for all the specimen I've donated to science over the years. Woohoo!

Illosporiopsis christiansenii - Lichen Bubblegum The wind has sent me gifts in the form of sticks blowing into my yard.

Lovely, all the websites I need to use right now are crashing. So I guess I'll talk about it on social media instead of working on stuff.

Sometimes when I sample mosses my sample will be a bit bigger than intended so I'll try to transplant what I deem to be the excess. This one from 2-3 years ago seems to be doing quite well in the rhubarb patch. Black circle is the original clump, green is new.

Hemlock Varnish Shelf - Ganoderma tsugae Looked a lot fresher than it really was. Poking it both left a dent, and squeezed out enough water to fill in said dent. Another month or two until they come back fresh for real

A nice little patch of Ulota coarcata that landed in the path.

Some neat moss here growing on the bridge over the brook where I caught my first fish as a little kid. Learning how to use a fishing rod came later, I apparently caught it with my hands.

Ooo just got permission to go lichenize a 150 acre woodlot in an area I really like. Just down the road from where I took my most recent photos.

My phone that I usually take microscope photos with is missing and I think I might have to just call off my search and get a new one. Just found a neat little bryophilous fungus on my Plagiochila sample which I don't think there are Canadian records of yet, which will probably be my motivation.

Tree Fuzzwort - Ptilidium pulcherrimum Getting a little creative with the 'common name'. I usually see it called tree fringewort, but some morphologically similar members of the genus are known as fuzzworts and I like that name better. (P. californicum)

Bluesky keeps having fits and vibrating my screen while I type out posts at like 400 beats per minute so that I can't spellcheck myself. You may see more typos than normal.

Today I saw the proof of why you mostly put shampoo directly on your scalp instead of focusing on the hair itself. Put one of my beard hairs under the microscope and you could see the dead skin cells accumulated at the base of the hair. Distal half totally free of debris. Now, time for my shower.

Are you lichen the moss? 🤣🤣🤣🤭 #fungifriends #naturephotography #hiking #backpacking

Tree-skirt Moss - Pseudanomodon attenuatus In mature hardwood forests, such as maple syrup operations this is often one of the most abundant mosses there. It often catches my eye from a distance and gets my hopes up while searching for other mosses.

Scarce Turf-Moss - Rhytidiadelphus subpinnatus Found in a forested white ash wetland yesterday

Annual photo of my OG pet lichen that started growing on my balcony railing six years ago.

This habitat brought to you by the blueberry industry.

Considering filing a restraining order against snow

Beaded Jellyskin Lichen - Scytinium teretiusculum New to me. S3 in Nova Scotia. Quite pleased to have had a chance to meet this little friend yesterday. Easy to miss a few bark flakes. I actually couldn't see the thalli, it was the black apothecia that caught my eye.

Little lichen trumpets. #lichen #moss #naturephotography

Monster chaga

Bud-Headed Groove Moss - Aulacomnium androgyna This one's pretty neat in that it has stalked gemmae (asexual reproductive part). Usually the little 'sticks' suspended above mosses have spore bearing structures.

Had a good little walk today. Most of the snow has melted, but I'm attracted to hills, so it was still quite snowy in the places I actually wanted to go. Pics to come

Looks like my book has hit 2,000 copies sold based on the end of 2025 figures being at ~1950 by that point.

Can't take microscope photos today, but I just learned that banana fibers are extremely cool under the microscope. Pic related.

If you have not heard the story of Jo Nagai, I highly recommend you do. He's the little boy who proved his former caterpillar friends could still remember him after they became butterflies. His brain's as big as his heart.

Magic in the woods 🩵✨ #WhimsyWednesday

www.inaturalist.org/observations... Looks like someone found a new lichen for the maritime provinces today named Hooded Sunburst Lichen (Xanthomendoza fallax). Directly across the street from a university at that. There's always more to discover