SO BE FREE with Bryologists in Zzyzx, California

After the NWL & CALS meeting in Arcata, Einar and I left the lush and wet northern parts of California and started our field work looking for Psora species on the way to the SO BE FREE workshop in the Mojave Desert. We spent a few nights camping, visited the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden Lichen Collection, and drove more than 800 miles to Zzyzx, California.

Camping with a tent and rental camper van, outfitted with a bed and kitchen.

We found one of our first Psora field sites with the help of Jason Dart, a local lichenologist.

Field site with soil crust lichens, including Psora pacifica & P. pruinosa.

Soil crust Psora pacifica

  

We visited the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden to meet with the lichen curator, Dr. Rikke Næsborg. We then looked through as many collections as we could in one day, adding identifications and taking samples for DNA extraction.

Einar & Rikke in Santa Barbara.

"Conservation Happens Here", Santa Barbara Botanical Garden 

On the way to the Mojave, we started to see Joshua trees, Yucca brevifolia.

Annie with a Joshua Tree.

SO BE FREE is a field meeting hosted by the Bryologist Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. This year the meeting attracted approximately 60 cryptogamologists to Zzyzx, CA.

Annie, Einar, and Brent at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, CA.

Zzyzx is next to a salt flat.

For the first field day, Einar and I carpooled to Clark Mountain to look for Psora.

Field day at Clark Mountain.

Lunch time at Clark Mountain.

Psora sp.

For the second field day, we drove on our own to look for lichens in the lower parts of the Mojave National Preserve. 

Mojave National Preserve

Multiple Psora species amongst other lichen species.

Last day at Zzyzx with the other participants of SO BE FREE.

Photo from SO BE FREE page

California Field Meeting with Northwest Lichenologists & CALS

As part of my PhD project studying the lichen family Psoraceae, Einar and I (Annie) traveled to California in March for field collecting, visiting lichen collections, and joining the Northwest Lichenologists and California Lichen Society meeting. The trip was funded by the Peder Sather Grant at the University of California, Berkeley.

Klara and Einar at the UC Berkeley Lichen Collection.

First, we visited our collaborators Dr. Klara Scharnagl and Dr. Brent Mishler (not pictured) at UC Berkeley. Klara is the Tucker Curator of Lichenology for the collections. She helped us look through the collections for relevant specimens for the project.

Psora sp. specimen at UC Berkeley.

Einar curating the Psora specimens.

After a couple of days in Berkeley, we drove up to Arcata, California for the field meeting.

We pulled over to look for Carbonicola anthracophila on the way.

The first day of the Northwest Lichenologists Meeting included presentations. I presented on my project with Psora and Einar presented on "Species hypotheses in Lecidea and Porpidia based on DNA barcode markers".

Einar presenting on Lecidea.

The first day of the meeting also included a field excursion to Bald Mountain.

First field day with CALS and the Northwest Lichenologists.

Einar collected some crustose lichens for the Lecidea and Rhizocarpon projects.

The second day of the meeting included a field excursion to Samoa Dunes and Wetlands.

Second field day with Friends of the Dunes.

Ramalina menziesii was common at the Dunes.

The third day, instead of Horse Mountain, we visited the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

We were welcomed to the parking area by a herd of Roosevelt elk, an endemic subspecies in California.

Annie & Klara in front of some redwoods.

Einar was excited to see a flowering Trillium for the first time in nature.

Trillium ovatum, Pacific Trillium

Annie with fairy puke lichen.

Icmadophila ericetorum, Fairy Puke

Bus Stop lichens, including Lichenomphalia umbellifera

At the end of the last day, there was a potluck dinner with the California Lichen Society.

Klara presenting at the CALS dinner.

After the dinner, there was jam session with a few of the CALS members, including Allie Weill who preformed her song The Age of Enlichenment.

FOURTH DAY IN THE FIELD

We were brought by a Landrover up to the cabin at Plesniec at 1290 m. Here is a cottage with a poster saying that Göran Wahlenberg botanized here in 1813. This was prior to his book Flora Carpathica, published in 1814.

Three of us decided to walk slowly through the forest down to village, wheras the rest headed for alpine limestone rock walls. The rocks were very rich in lichens, e.g. Placynthium spp., Squamarina lamarckii, Toninia alutacea, T. taurica, and T. tristis.

Toninia taurica

Squamarina lamarckii

Dinner, zemiaková placka

THIRD DAY IN THE FIELD

This day, the weather forecast was not promising, so we had to hurry to the mountains before it started to rain. Today, it was the day, when we spent the whole day together with the bryologists. In total 20 people packed into two Land rowers to be faster to reach the nice places in the mountains – Belianske Tatry. We were transported like cattle, but we arrived “dobre”

Short leg-streching while waiting for a car coming in the opposite direction

Belianske Tatry (Calcareous Tartas) in the background! Our goal for the afternoon.

The trail, which should take 30 minutes, took us at least two hours. We were so happy, collecting several interesting lichens.



Lichenomphalina umbellifera

After collecting a lot of interesting lichens (Dacampia hookeri, Polysporina urceolata, Protoblastenia terricola, Squamarina gypsacea, Toninia alutacea), at 2 pm hell broke loose when a tunderstorm hit the mountain and chased us down into the valley.

Forest dynamics in Slovakia (after the storm ca 10 years ago)



After the hard day, we deserved a good dinner – fried cheese (vyprážaný syr)

Later, we were forced to try Moravian wine (part of the Czech Republic)