Favoritos de sammyisafuzzydog

On Convallaria majalis, lily-of-the valley.

I am thinking this leaf streak is probably the result of the fungal pathogen, Aureobasidium microstictum, based on what I read here:

https://extension.psu.edu/lily-of-the-valley-convallaria-diseases

where the author says:

"Small water-soaked spots develop which later have brown streaks with yellow halos--these spots often form from the leaf tip downward. Infected leaves die prematurely."

Please everyone, bear in mind that none of my fungal pathogen IDs are based on lab work -- no microscopy and no culturing. The IDs are all based solely on the macroscopic appearance of the lesions on the plants.

As a result, many of my fungal/bacterial/viral IDs may in fact be incorrect.

Most similar to Rhizoplaca glaucophana, but differs from that species in having apothecia at the central region of the thallus instead of at the thallus periphery.

On exposed bedrock in the channel of the Haw River. So far, every population I have found is located thusly, and within 50 to 100 cm of the normal flow level, but below the usual flood level.

Not the biggest leaf in the world but big (about a foot long) [Me in middle photo, to give perspective]

{Last photo: rhodendendron blooming in background, in case you are curious}

Compare to these other large-leaf native North Carolina magnolia species: I invite you to my Observations
• Fraser Magnolia, Magnolia fraseri https://inaturalist.ca/observations/66239567
• Magnolia fraseri var. fraseri https://inaturalist.ca/observations/65510390
• Bigleaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla https://inaturalist.ca/observations/66184852

I helped it finish meandering across the sidewalk, so it wouldn't get stepped on and squashed.

Dominant eastern Piedmont xystodesmid (a "cherry millipede"), two color patterns (a disparity around the Deep-Cape Fear Rivers), typically with yellow paranota (lateral segmental expansions on the dorsa), a yellow middorsal spot on the anterior margin of the collum or 1st segment, and yellow middorsal spots on the caudalmost 3-5 segments (in central NC south of the Deep/Cape Fear Rivers a different, undescribed species has yellow middorsal splotches on essentially every segment).

A millipede's body is divided into 2 distinct parts, the head and the trunk. The head houses the antennae, mouthparts, & eyes (composed of ocelli, or simple eyes; usually multiple ocelli compose an eye, but certain millipede orders lack eyes entirely). The trunk is composed of several body rings. The 1st body ring (collum segment), directly behind the head, is legless, the next 4 body rings each having 1 pair of legs. All remaining body rings, save the very last few, have 2 pairs of legs. The number of the apodous body rings (lacking legs), can vary. Many millipedes have ozopores (defense glands) on the sides of most of their body rings, and produce a chemical defense exuded through these ozopores to deter predators or other curious animals.

On bare soil humus on a slope to a creek in mixed hardwood forest, on a warm day following rain showers. Chromelosporium fulvum has erect, septate conidiophores with an unbranched main axis bearing 7 to 12 sporogenous ampullae, the spore-bearing heads, needle-like clusters. Conidia develop simultaneously on denticles located on the surface of each ampulla. The fungus first appears as fine, white, aerial mycelium. The spores form in a few days, changing the color to light yellow or golden brown; the thick, white, fluffy mycelial edges remain. The globose conidia are lightly pigmented tan-brown and cover each ampulla at maturity. The mold, easily air-borne, is opportunistic, and not readily tolerating other organisms.

4th photo - my drinking water was poured onto the moss to allow it to hydrate

• leaf cycle-shaped
• no midrib on leaf
• no pleats on leaf
• no marginal teeth on leaf
• leaf 1-1.5 mm long

Either

• Hypnum pallescens synonym Jochenia pallescens ; or
• Hypnum fauriei synonym Pseudohygrohypnum fauriei

This lichen was growing on a Red maple in the middle of a dried out vernal pool. I still managed to get my boots a bit wet, while trying to get to the lichens to photograph them. The H. minarum was growing alongside Punctelia missouriensis and some Cladonia.

Lobes are smooth, lacking pseudocephyllae. Much of the thallus surface is covered with brownish isidia, i.e., small projections which act as structures for vegetative reproduction. The isidia break off and are carried to other places by the wind, giving rise to a new thallus.

https://www.plantscience4u.com/2014/07/difference-between-isidia-and-soredia.html

• perforated apothecia
• lower surface black with brown margin
• upper surface white when desiccated
• upper surface light green when hydrated
• the long narrow raised/flailing lobes seem characteristic in my experience

Note that in the oldest/largest apothecium, the rim is becoming lobulate. In this species, the old apothecia can sport extensive new vegetative growth, thus giving the rosette a bizarre appearance - see: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143511605

Last photo shows hydrated color.

The apothecia do not have a crown of powder as one sees in Lepra amara. The hydrated color is not so green as in Lepra amara.

The apothecia are crowded, in some instances new apothecia erupting nearly under older apothecia, as one sees in some species of Ochrolechia and Coccotrema. Yet I find no match there.

UV+, a small yellowish green sorediate rosette lichen 2-3cm diameter, prominent whitish pruina near the lobe tips, and a cortex fluorescing bright banana yellow due to the presence of lichexanthone [first 3 photos in 365 nanometer ultraviolet (“black”) light, some of the rest under a flashlight]; during the day, it blends into the background, but at night or under UV light one of the most easily identifiable Sewanee lichens, as even thallus fragments less than 1mm glow bright yellow {the related Pyxine sorediata, UV-, also grows here, has a thallus with a characteristic blue-green aspect, reaches ± 8cm in diameter, often as a lone medallion on a tree trunk; Pyxine subcinerea often in groups scattered up and down a slender smooth-barked branch}

This fungus causes a tree disease called Cytospora canker, attacking hardwoods such as cottonwood and willows: the pathogen invades the stems, branches, and twigs of the host trees and forms cankers, spreading by producing conidia (asexual spores) within fruiting bodies (pycnidia) on the cankers; spores then ooze out, extrusions forming long, orange-red, coiled "spore tendrils" in wet weather like the rain showers we just had

This fungus causing cytospora canker exists in two stages, a sexual stage known as Valsa sordida, and an imperfect, or asexual, stage, Cytospora chrysosperma, the latter more commonly encountered, as I did here

Photos cropped, then full size: 1st half with flashlight, 2nd half natural light

More of this Cytospora chrysosperma thriving on the same limb, cf. inaturalist.org/observations/151177686

Growing on bark of Fraxinus.
Stomata immersed. Plants corticolous. Emergent capsules strongly constricted when dry, with 8 broad ribs and a stellate mouth. Basal leaf cells not porose. Bruce Allen, Maine Mosses vol. 2, 2014.
The last photo is of a capsule wall.

• almost no marginal cilia visible, and when seen they are at first flat and transparent (1st photo), later black and fang-like (2nd photo)
• underside is white (2nd photo)

My first and continuing notion is Heterodermia.

For comparative purposes, 3rd photo: right, and low center - lichen species of observation - Physcia aipolia; far left, Physconia subpallida ; center top, smaller greener lichen - Phaeophyscia pumilior.