Nature News: Crumpled rag lichens grow high in the forest
Susan Pike
I took a rather harrowing walk out back on Sunday. Snow squalls were threatening and the wind was tossing the tops of the giant spruce, hemlock and pine back and forth. Occasionally branches would crash down. This is the time of year when some of our more subtle neighbors, the lichens, really stand out ... often they are the only hints of color against the snow, gray rocks and monochrome tree trunks. Raining down along with the pine and spruce branches came one of my favorite lichens - the crumpled rag lichen (Platismatia tuckermanii).