As some of you know, I have been trying to get my hands on and culture a live specimen of Xanthoria parietina for several years now. This is because it has a combination of traits which makes it very useful, including:
- relatively rapid growth (reportedly up to 7 mm per yr, although this is still far slower than rates reported for Herpothallon/Cryptothecia)
- strong sun/dehydration tolerance
- ability to detoxify pollutants and use them as fertilizer
- large size (easier to manipulate and photograph)
- ability to grow on a wide variety of substrates, including plastic
- calciphily (it won't throw fits and die if given hard water)
- ability to tolerate lawn sprinklers (many lichens become injured if rehydration from a dry state is not preceded by a slow, gradual air humidity increase; sprinkler tolerance means that it can survive/grow even when no such gradual increase is present)
Unfortunately, it does not grow anywhere near me, which is why I have not acquired one yet. My attempts to get acquaintances to mail me some have also been wildly unsuccessful. So a few days ago I went on a trip to the coast, as it is often associated with coastal habitats*.
...I did not see a single foliose/fruticose lichen, although orange/yellow dot lichens and intertidal organisms were abundant. Even the ancient Spanish mission I visited (see pic above) had a rather pitiful lichen flora. Also, despite the abundant eye candy I was sad the whole time, as I do not believe in vacationing for sightseeing's sake.
I can't post about only my successes, can I? That would be biased and perhaps dishonest. Maybe you'll enjoy the eye candy more than I did. Here's an urchin I found on the beach:
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| Mesocentrotus franciscanus |
*X. parietina seems to require salt to survive. However, it is not aquatic (it drowns if kept too wet) and in fact I believe its salt requirement is actually quite low. According to the literature, aerosolized salt from ocean breezes appears adequate for its needs (at least one paper also suggests that road salt may cause it to appear in non-coastal regions). So I imagine that the salt thing should not be too problematic for me if I acquire a specimen.
