mosses and lichens
The World of Mosses, featuring the work of Robert Muma, is a nice place to start exploring mosses. In my photographs of mosses, I have no idea what it is I'm looking at, actually, and in a little bit of exploring has revealed a huge, complex world of thousands of species, usually identified with the aid of a magnifying glass!
Did anybody else ever play in the woods, say, on a mossy blanketed flat stone, and notice the small "fairy cups" on the slender stalks above the moss? Apparently, that is the sporophyte. You can find that out too on the same site above by clicking on Discovering the Mosses...
Ooohh! So many interesting things to explore. Andy's northern Ontario Wildflower Page also has many photos of mosses and lichens.
My fibre friends will be interested in this site which mentions several lichens used in dying fibre.
Among the best photos of lichens that I've found so far are these by Julie Medlin, on her "Lichens of Grand Traverse County, Michigan" page, here.
I'm still at a total loss as to how to identify anything. I can see I will have to do some homework!
posted by Kati at 11:13 p.m.
1 Comments:
I lovelovelove mosses and lichens. I am COMPLETELY absorbed by them when I go for walks in the woods. When I worked on a gold mine in Northern Ontario for a short time, my complete focus and fascination was for the mosses and lichens up there, not for the visible gold which could sometimes be seen!
And that is where I first learned the name 'False Pixie Cups'. They are so sweet, are they not?!!
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