I visited my blog spot on the evening of the 14th. It was very sunny, perfect weather. I spent a little over 30 minutes at my spot observing a fungus on the branch in both pictures. I had been curious about it for the past few weeks, but never mentioned it. I always see fungus on trees, so I figured it would a perfect learning experience.

I picked the foliose lichen. They are on the branches that is on the tree line that’s next the spot I sit at. I initially identified it as a fungus that was on the tree. The color helped me put a name to it. I picked this organism because I’ve always been interested in knowing what it was, but never took the time to do research on it.

I immediately noticed the light green with a baby blue tint. The color is what drew me in. As I got closer, I noticed how leafy the fungus appeared. I thought it was pretty interesting how it covered most of the branch. I also noticed that the fungus is very attached to the bark.

I found that this species is called a Tree-Dwelling lichen, it gets the name foliose from its leaf like that is on the bark. It also presents itself in other forms. This lichen is usually dependent on other life, but can produce food on their own from sunlight. They appear more in stressed or old tree trunks. It appears more in climates with more moisture than normal. It also provides many benefits in both nature and human culture.

I identified the organism on a New Jersey agricultural website. I would say it was fun, because now I know more about this organism. I first had to get the correct wording to describe the organism. Once I got it right, it wasn’t hard finding the information on it. I had a good experience identifying this organism.