Lichen

This time of the year, when all the snow is gone but just before the fresh green comes out, lichen & moss become extremely visible to my eye.

Southern Finland.

Great Lakes region USA. March 2026.

Maybe not exactly a lichen focused photo, but they really add color to the context. This was near a Nuthatch nest.

Great Lakes region, USA. March 2026.

Oly E-M1 @ 60mm, f/2.8, 1/100s, ISO 3200.

Midwest USA, March 2026.

Oly E-M1 @ 60mm, f/7.1, 1/100s, ISO 400

I'm walking around the yard looking for cool stuff to photograph after our ice storm and this beautiful lichen encased in ice caught my eye. Wow is it gorgeous! I'm really loving my new 60mm f/2.8 macro lens.

Took this with a handheld digital microscope so it's not a great photo. Each stalk was about 1-3mm tall.

Olympus E-M1 + Oly 60mm f/2.8 Macro

60mm, f/10, 1/60s, ISO-200, Flash -1EV.

This was a quick and dirty test on my new macro lens just to see how things turned out. I could have stopped my aperture down a bit more, but I'm happy with how this turned out. I can't wait for spring!

Midwest USA. December 2025.

Olympus E-M1 @ 246mm, f/8, 1/160s, ISO250.

I was testing the magnification and sharpness of my Oly 75mm-300mm and was quite impressed with how well this turned out for how affordable the lens is. I do have a macro setup, but didn't have it with me.

Midwest USA. September 2025.

Olympus E-M1 @ 43mm, f/6, 1/250s, ISO200

Here's one of the full stump.

Olympus E-M1 @ 12mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO200

Olympus E-M1, 300mm, f/8, 1/125s, ISO 250

It's been a minute since I last posted and this nice patch caught my eye. It's a white winter here and I have to get my color where I can.

I see Vulpicida canadensis, Cladonia sp., Parmeliopsis sp., not sure what that sort of brown patch could be.

i don't know what it is, just that it brings me joy

edit: it's a misidentified moss. 34 years old and still learning new things everyday

Love to look at branches with lots of lichens on them because there's always more variety than you think. I'm not great with ID but I see the Vulpicida, Parmelia, Bryoria, Tuckermanopsis (or something that looks like it), Usnea, possibly 3 species of Lecanora or something similar. For the Lecanora-like ones I see white-rimmed apothecia on the branch running down my palm, also seeing just black apothecia down the branch from that. Harder to see, but there is a group of brown-orange apothecia between the 2 large Vulpicida colonies. Did I miss anything?

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/36965590

This photo is from a few weeks back. Some species in the Russula genus.

Location: Midwest USA

The green crust beneath the fruitbody is the vegetative part of the lichen.

Mushroom Expert