Nostoc

asergio----> lars??? but i will agree !!? :)

You're welcome, Lars. For a last comment, I have to say that I learned more in this year and so that I've been part of PN than I could believe it was possible. And I am sure that one day I will be able to distinguish a shield bug from a stink bug!!! ;-)

Just one final (pleeeease!) thought to add to the debate! One of our key guiding principles for Project Noah is to help people reconnect with nature! To me this means if we can encourage more people (kids especially) to get outside & develop an interest in the natural world then we have succeeded - even if not all the photographs are the highest quality or even identifiable in every case. Obviously we are all still keen that we maintain the quality of the site & we do get as much scientific data as possible - but that is not the sole purpose of this community! :)

asergio, i dont meant it this strict.
find something, make nice good (beautifull) picture from it. Post it even if you not know , what it is, therefore have we the "help me id'ing" - feature, But NOW: when you know what it is update a nice description, BUT here are people who make one BEAUTIFULL picture from something they know ( something ordinar ), and give as note : MY DOG FOUND IT !!. That what i meant: on id-spotting no little bit description. (i need 15-30 min to post a spotting, would i do it as some of the others. i would have allready all my 2000 < specimen geuploadet ! ) I hope that will make it clearer {to be still more clearer i have to submit you the spotting i mean !!} but thanks for your concern asergio.

Alex, I understand your concern about the PN role, and I agree with you - partially. I think that PN should no to become a nature photos beauty contest, but I also think that it should not be restricted to a scientific point of view. You see, I am not able to ID most of my findings, because I am not a scientist, just an amateur photographer that loves nature. Do that disqualifies my spots from an educational point of view? I don't think so, because through my photos people from around the world can know about the amazing Brazil's biodiversity. As I learn about places that otherwise would be inaccessible to me, like India, Australia, and... Germany! Anyway, I apologize to the scholars for being in their way, and I promise that I'll try to ID my spots better.

:D

cover up---> mission impossible (i see almost everything) :) {i have an eye on you !!!!! } :) LOL :)

Thanks Alex! No cover up intended! Just remove the comments that no longer made sense in isolation!

makes sense: from your site. but it also seem as would the discussion just covered up. peters comment are also no longer there !!! I saw it this morning, but wasn't sign-in, could not react directly. I also share the thoughts from clive (all). 6 months ago pn felt different than now !!! But thanks that you reacted/replied (thought already, here are no longer people who care ) {but 1 thought from tomorow: yes i see the new education-feature BUT: more than 50 % is going for the nicest pictures no education, and with the new feature, learn the scholars a incomplet categoration-system} !!! No need to reply, dont wanted to start a discussion NOW (maybe later). AGAIN THANKS KARENL

Hi Alex! Clive decided to leave the community over his dissatisfaction over our current categorization system. When he closed his account with Project Noah, all his comments were automatically deleted. I subsequently deleted my comments as they no longer made sense without being able able to read his!

i wanted to agree- but ok : delete the evidence !!! :)

Thanks Laura! Nostoc makes perfect sense now that I have read the info on it!
My original description had said it was some organism growing on a rock but I had replaced this with the info on the blue-green algae. In fact the whole rock was covered in it & I had just peeled a bit off for a photo. It was slimy & jelly like. I will try & take a photo of the whole rock, wet & dry!
Emma, we had torrential rain the day before so the meadow was very damp!

Oh, I didn't realise it was actually growing there, it looked like you'd just found that clump of it! In that case I guess Nostoc is actually a pretty good match for this. Haha, that's what you get when a marine biologist tries to ID some terrestrial algae ;D

Karen,is it moist in the meadow? Did it rain recently? Do seeweed need salty water to grow in?

Thanks Laura! I guess my only concern about this being a seaweed is there appeared to be quite a lot of it & it was definitely growing on the rocks in our meadow - & we are 450 miles from the nearest ocean! The plot thickens....

I'm going to wade in here on the algae front, as I study them! These guys aren't blue-green algae. Blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) are microalgae, this thing is called macroalgae - otherwise known as seaweed! Difficult to ID it as it looks like it's fairly dried out and unhappy, but it's from a group of algae called the phaeophytes, which is the brown algae. Also have to admit that my knowledge of seaweeds is limited to those found around the UK and Europe (and my research focusses on microalgae!) so not able to help out massively on getting to species level. Also it looks like you've found it in an odd place, it may have been dropped there by something else (since you won't find this kind of algae out of water), which makes it all the more tricky!

Algae classification is very sticky, as they're not plants (though for some reason the green seaweeds ARE classed as plants, adding some confusion to the mix). When you start getting to these sorts of organisms, the classification gets increasingly convoluted, and highly debated. It would be very tricky to make a classification system here that covers everything while being easy to follow. In my humble opinion, anyway!