Week of October 25, 2020

The rainy summer that brought the profusion of mushrooms also stimulated growth of numerous kinds of LICHENS.  Lichens are of course a commensal relationship between fungi and algae.  I had usually associated them with our cool northern forests, but after the wet and humid summer, the lichens in our Florida garden were remarkable for their growth on every surface with a multitude of shapes, colors, and sizes.  Our oak and magnolia tree trunks sported many bands and blotches of green, gray, tan and white lichens, some smooth and other richly textured.  A favorite is the Christmas lichen, a ring of red to pink with bright red fruiting structures.  The rocks in the garden were usually covered with gray and green layers featuring small fingers with tiny cups, but the stone in our agave bed had small patches of bright orange lichen that perked up the scene considerably.  Our smaller bushes such as our blueberries had some of the oldest growths of gray filamentous lichens, again with fruiting cups.  These lichens also richly adorned the rabbit fence cages protecting the fruit trees from our numerous buck deer during the rutting season.  Lichens are always worth a pause in the garden walk-around, to look closely at these tiny gardens within the garden.