Tree Trunk and Wolf Lichen. Yosemite Valley, California. October 31, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Wolf lichen on a tree trunk near LeConte Lodge comes back to life with autumn Rains, Yosemite Valley.
If you read the “technical data” at the end of this post, you know that it was dark in this forest! The location is near the Le Conte Lodge (across the road from the Housekeeping Camp) along the south side of Yosemite Valley, and in an area where the tall cliffs approach very closely to the road and trail. Because of this it is deeply shaded for a good part of the day, especially during this time of the years.
I had gone here looking for maple leaves and for the large oaks that grow near the lodge. I just happened to see this interesting bark texture as I hiked past and noticed the brilliant – almost fluorescent – greens of the lichen in contrast to the dull color of the tree. While it was dark here and the shot required a long exposure, an upside was that the soft, diffused light lowered the contrast of the scene to manageable levels.
(I originally referred to “moss” in the title and description of this photo. Thanks to “Dave” for setting me straight and identifying it as fruticose lichen.)
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(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)
Dave, I really appreciate your efforts to identify this! I’ve changed the EXIF and title for future versions of the photograph to include the “wolf lichen” and Letharia vulpina reference.
Thanks!
Dan
Hi Dan,
So you got me interested in trying to identify the lichen further. I believe this is the lichen in your image.
http://www.lichen.com/bigpix/Lvulpina.html
You are really testing my memory from a college botany class some 30 years ago. Appreciate the challenge and your great image! Keep up the great work!
Lichen! That was my first thought. (If you look at the title of the jpg you’ll see it refers to lichen rather than moss.)
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll change the title. :-)
Dan
Hi Dan,
Great image of the fruticose lichen.