August 6 Candleflame Lichen

This specimen is sitting on a downed white birch trunk on the ground at the Lakeshore Preserve just a minute in from the trailhead. Lichens are difficult to identify, just like fungi, but they are different from fungi because they associate with algae, and sometimes a bacteria, in order to grow and live. Using my field guide, my best guess at this point is candleflame lichen (candelaria concolor). It grows on trees and has bright yellow rosettes which overlap. So far, lichenologists have found 14,000 species of lichens on earth, and they are present even when you don't see them - their spores are floating and flying on the wind, ready to grow on their preferred surface (they either like only rocks, trees, or soil) under the right conditions. A single tree may have twenty lichens on it, so go and count!