Leparaia lobificans "Fluffy Dust Lichen"

Sample #13: Leparaia lobificans "Fluffy Dust Lichen"

Figure 1: detail of original sample's gray-green color; dust-like soredia visible

Figure 2: aged Leparaia lobificans; algae has mostly shut down revealing white fungal color

Phylum: Ascomycota

Family: Stereocaulaceae

Collection Date: 22 September, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: on rocks and trees; very shade tolerent

Location: on a chip of fallen bark, Squaw Rock, Ohio

Description: thick “fluffy” thallus covered with soredia; gray-green in color, but can have overtones of yellow; is either an indistinct mass or lobed with rounding edges

Key Used: Anonymous Multiauthor (2015).  Common Lichens of Ohio Field Guide.  Ohio Division of Wildlife, part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. 

Steps to Key:

                Recognized the morphology in the guide

DNA analysis: Very dissimilar BLAST match for the algae Micromonas; possible but unlikely fact as Micromonas is a marine photosynthetic microplankton

Resources:

http://ohiomosslichen.org/lichen-lepraria-lobificans/

http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/182623-Lepraria-lobificans

Arachniam album "Puffball"

Sample #12:  Arachnion album “Puffball”

Figure 1: Arachmion album freshly collected; note absence of stem and traditional pileus

Figure 2: detail of matured spores contained inside the peridium; no compartments, arranged in a globe

Figure 3: detail of surface of peridium, fractured in starlike rays

Figure 4: individual spores under magnification

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Family: Agaricaceae

Collection Date: 16 October, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: open fields and soil;

Location: collection on a dead tree stump, Mantua, Ohio

Description: gleba spore sack full of sand-like particles;

Key Used: Arora, David (1986).  Mushrooms Demystified.  New York City, New York: Ten Speed Press: an association of Random House Inc. 

Steps for Keying:

                Basidiomycete: pg 52

                Puffballs and Earthstars: “fruiting body round to oval … interior (spore mass) firm when young but powdery and dusty when mature (pg 54)

                Not a bird’s nest: “fruiting body [not] consisting of a “nest” (cup, vase, or bowl) containing one or more “eggs” (peridioles) (pg676)” 

                Not “emerging as a cylindrical, phallic, branched, tentacled or lattice structure (pg 676)”

                “Stalk rudimentary or absent (pg 676)

                “spore mass firm and solid when young…powdery or cottony when mature and usually dispersing fairly soon; columella (internal stalk) typically absent (pg 676)”

                Not “splitting into several starlike rays which unfold or bend (pg 679)”

                Contains no peridioles

                “fruiting body puff-like … lacking a columella and stalk, (pg 679)”, found in sandy soil or open places

Resources:

http://www.mycobank.org/name/Arachnion%20album

http://www.envismadrasuniv.org/Arachnion%20album.html

Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus “Pleated Shaggy Moss”

Sample #11: : Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus  “Pleated Shaggy Moss”

Figure 1: detail of Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus stem and leaf branches; once pinnate branching evident

Figure 2: detail of leaves; midrib too faint for identification; note microscopic "teeth" on leaf edges in middle right

Phylum: Bryophyta

Family: Hylocomiaceae

Collection Date: 16 October, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: Forest soil in conifer forests, openings in hardwood forests, woods enriched with calcium, along streams

Location: Soil, close to a seasonal stream, Mantua, Ohio

Description: creeping to upright; foum bushy mats; leaves green and close together with red stems; leaves triangular egg-shaped tapering to a pointed tip; weak midrib; leaf edges have microscopic teeth

Key Used: McKnight, Karl, Joseph Rohrer, Kirsten McKnight Ward and Warren Perdrizet (2013).  Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians.  Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Steps to Key:

                Plerocarp, faint midrib

                “Pinnately branched (like a feather or fern frond) (pg365)”

                “Stems once pinnate (pg365)”

                Found on soil

                “Large and shaggy (pg365)”

Resources:

http://blogs.ubc.ca/biology321/?page_id=524

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=RHTR70

Bryum argenteum “Silver Moss”

Figure 1: representation of concentration of gametophyte stems in a sample of Bryum argentaum; sporophytes present in abundance

Figure 2: detail of single gametophyte; "silvering" of leaf tips evident, with green coloring appearing futher down the structures

Figure 3: detail of intact sporophyte capsule; red coloring appeared further down the stepa

Sample #10: Bryum argenteum “Silver Moss”

Phylum: Bryophyta

Family: Bryaceae

Collection Date: 16 October, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: common in urban areas; hard dry soil, sand, gravel, on walls and roofs

Location: in shallow soil on the side of a parking lot, Mantua, Ohio

Description: silvery at tips to pale green at the bottom; red stems tightly packed; usually no more than 1 cm tall; leaves difficult to differentiate, no different if wet or dry

Key Used: McKnight, Karl, Joseph Rohrer, Kirsten McKnight Ward and Warren Perdrizet (2013).  Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians.  Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Steps to Keying:

                Acrocarp

                Ovate leaf, midrib (pg 17)

                “Plants less than or equal to 1 cm tall (pg 350)”

                “Plants silvery pale green … tightly packed so that stems appear wormlike (pg 350)”

Resources:

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/bryumargent.htm

http://ohiomosslichen.org/moss-Bryum-argenteum/

Psathyrella piluiformis "Common Stump Brittlestem"

Sample #9: Psathyrella piluliformis “Common Stump Brittlestem”

Figure 1: close view of the dehydrated pileus; felt covering and bits of parciel veil visible

Figure 2: image of freshly picked sample; note granulated pileus and possible veil remnants on stem

Figure 3: lamellae packed under cap; adnate nature seen at separation at top of image

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Family: Psathyrellaceae

Collection Date: 16 October, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: common wood-rotting fungus found on or around stumps of dead deciduous trees

Location: in gathered clump on a dead stump, Mantua, Ohio

Description: Cap red-brown with pieces of veil stuck to the top; veil pieces disappear as the fungus matures; lamellae adnate and close together with a beige coloring; stem 4 to 8mm in diameter, silky white color, straight or slightly curved

Key Used: Peterson, Jens, Alf Gaba and Thomas Læssøe.  MycoKey – the mycological information site.  The Universities of Arrhus and Copenhagen.  http://www.mycokey.com/newMycoKeySite/MycoKeyIdentQuick.html

Steps for Keying:

                Mushroom with gills (agarics with a stem)

                Found on wood

                Pileus surface felty to hairy

                Pileus color a vivid brown

                Lamellae adnate

                From here, morphological identification

Resources:

http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/psathyrella-piluliformis.php

Cladonia christatella "British Soliders"

Sample #8: Cladonia christatella “British Soliders Lichen”

Figure 1: red squamulous apothecia on the end of the British Solider podetia

Figure 2: cross section of the thallus; color difference between algal layer and medulla clearly visible

Figure 3: side view of podetia stalk

Phylum: Ascomycota     

Family: Cladoniaceae

Collection Date: 9 October, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: rotted wood; damp stumps, tree bases, old fence posts

Location: fence post, Brunswick, Ohio

Description: algae involved Trebouxia erici; squamulous; green-grey colored stalks with white medulla; red-tipped, button-like apothecia on the tips of podecia; often about 1 cm in height

Key Used: Anonymous Multiauthor (2015).  Common Lichens of Ohio Field Guide.  Ohio Division of Wildlife, part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. 

Steps to Keying:

Recognized the morphology in the guide

Resources:

http://www.lichens.lastdragon.org/Cladonia_macilenta.html

Trichia varia - Slime Mold

Sample #7: Trichia varia

Figure 1: early-stage sporophyte of Trichia varia; darkening stepa evident

Figure 2: sporophyte formation on the dead wood substrate

Figure 3: formations of typical speckled bands on the stem of the sporophyte, indicating an early-stage growth

Phylum: Myxomycota

Family: Trichiaceae

Collection Date: 20 October, 2016

Collector: Kristen Maslach

Habitat: dead wood

Location: rotted stump, Hiram, Ohio

Description: crowded sporophyte; stoat short stalk (has yet to turn black); sporothecia globulose, yellow and .5-.9mm wide; simple hard to see membranes; white or clear plasmodium; pictures believed to be of an early sporophyte stage

Key Used: Rollins, Adam and Steven Stevenson .  Slime Molds of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, University of Arkansas.  In Discover Life

http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Mycetozoa_GSMNP

Steps to Key:

                Bright spore mass

                Genus/species by visual identification

Resources:

http://hiddenforest.co.nz/slime/family/trichiaceae/trich10.htm