A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Collema sp.
Small patches of green slimy lichen with flat bluish-white apothecia (spore bearing structures) on damp tree trunks. These were seen growing along side Cartilage lichen (Ramalina farinaceae) as seen in pic 3.
Spotted on coastal banksia along the high tide mark- Snowy River estuary
The slimy thallus of this species is made up of cyanobacteria, which is the photobiont. Without the apothecia, this lichen can be mistaken for Nostoc where the photobiont is also cyanobacteria.
They formed small interesting black patches with blue dots, on the moist tree trunks.
Family: Collemataceae
Spotted on May 16, 2017
Submitted on May 24, 2017
2 Comments
They were fascinating but a little difficult to see unless you study tree trunks closely. Mark (husband) was the first to spot these.
You might have seen Nostoc -the terrestrial (brown algae) although some don't group it as an algae because it has cyanobacteria. Nostoc looks like green slimy, mouldy growth on damp soil. The body of Collema looks like Nostoc except for the whitish spore bearing discs. Quite attractive !
Fascinating Leuba. I have never seen this before and didn't even know jelly lichen was a 'thing'. I will look out for it. Thank you for sharing this.