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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3h

Thank you Sue.

L. stigmatea messed with me a couple of times now. The prominent thallus distracts me in the specimens I find not on mortar or concrete. Especially this one here had me running in circles...

bsky.app/profile/pete...

Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · Feb 1

Of course. Lecideine ap. with sub-squamulose to crustose thallus on a brick in an old wall. Quasi rain sheltered but wet in the photo. I wanted to do a better presentation but didn't get to it yesterday.

Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3h

Microscopy details.

Section of apothecium in water. Hypothecium is dark brown, almost black. Hymenium is clear. Epithecium is olive-green.

Spores in water with measurement bars. The spores are 1 celled, hyalin (not pigmented), ellipsoid and approximately 13,5x5,5µm in size.

Asci have a K/I blue outer layer and blue tholus. Hymenium is K/I blue.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3h

Lecidea grisella #lichen on vertical surface of a playground wall.

Grey lichen crust with black apothecia, cracked to areoles in the central part and less cracked in the periphery.

Apothecia dark, covered in white pruina and sunken into areoles, surrounded by cracks.

Wall made of large rectangular grey stone blocks on a playground. Inbetween the blocks is grass covered by red leaves. In the background: hedges and a red building.

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Reposted by Peter Braubach

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 23h

Happy world hagfish day, nerds!

Your car has just been crushed by hagfish: Frequently Asked Questions – Southern Fried Science

Your car has just been crushed by hagfish: Frequently Asked Questions

Wait, what? Earlier today, Oregon State Police reported that a truck carrying a shipment of live hagfish overturned, spilling its slimy cargo all over the highway and damaging at least one vehicle.…

www.southernfriedscience.com

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Reposted by Peter Braubach

James Harding-Morris @bsbicountries.bsky.social · 2d

I'm delighted that we have a whole range of talks from our Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project taking place this winter on Tuesday evenings.

Want to learn more about conifers? Rushes? Clubmosses? Hawthorns? Plant Pathogenic Fungi? ROBOTS??

See them all here:
bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Botanical Skills Webinars – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland

bsbi.org

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3d

The spores are a bit too small for L. erysibe so I will look into this again. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3d

I think this is Lecania erysibe #lichen on a limestone boulder.
Some small yellow nightmare parasitizes on the green blastidiate crust (however I have not collected this one yet).

Green areolate crust composed of green blastidia.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3d

Lecidella stigmatea #lichen (I think) on a playground wall.

Brown lichen crust with black apothecia.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 3d

no idea (i live far away from the coast and marine lichens are a complete unknown for me). For this I would not think further without doing microscopy first - cyanobacteria? something completely different? lichen?

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 4d

IKI reaction of S. pruinosa in comparison:

Section of S. pruinosa apothecium in water.

IKI addition turns hymenium blue (euamyloid reaction)

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 4d

Sarcogyne belarusensis - I believe - a rarely recorded lichen easily mistaken for S. pruinosa (or S. regularis). IKI red (hemiamyloid) hymenium and blue subhymenium. #lichen

Lichen with black pruinose disks and entholithic thallus.

Section of an apothecium showing a pale hypothecium and pigmented epihymenium

IKI has to be evaluated in a slightly squished apothecium (to my current understanding it can seem blue in thick sections).

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 8d

My current line of thought would be Gyalolechia flavovirescens however I do not see a C purple reaction. Microscopically C darkens the cortex to darker orange.

I would appreciate any ideas to get me new lines of thought.

2-celled spores in water (after heating briefly)

On addition of C cortex darkens to dark orange.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 8d

Tonight I am troubled by this Caloplaca sp. #lichen. K+ cortex. Short ellipsoid spores with wide septum (9,6-11 x 5,5-6,8 µm). In northern hessia on silicous rock with Trapelia sp. (I think) and others I don't know. Keying out I arrive at costal sp. which this is definitely not fitting.

Detail of yellow lichen crust with yellow apothecia.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 8d

A recurring problem with discussions of Sarah @lilithelina.bsky.social and I. I also tend to interrupt (e.g. when I think I know the answer). I see this as a valid form of discussion while being equally open to an interruption from the other side.

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Reposted by Peter Braubach

The Oatmeal @theoatmeal.bsky.social · 9d

Let’s talk about AI art.

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 11d

Link to a full apothecium composite image (60xW/2x mag changer)

301 - Rinodina bischoffii Panorama.jpg

drive.google.com

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 11d

Pigmented 2-celled ascospores with a black band over the septum points me towards Rinodina bischoffii - on limestone from the old quarry in northern Hessia I've visited this summer. #Lichen

A couple of dark pigmented ascospores with an even darker band running across the septum.

Section of apothecium in water with pigmented spores.

grey lichen thallus with black apothecia, some with thalline margin

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 11d

How big is it? Perhaps the size of a medium boulder?

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 11d

Regarding immersion depth. The apothecia are thin (dry) and sit in pits, some nearly flush to the substrate, some protruding. Wetted they turn brown ever so slightly and swell to convex.

Maybe this information helps to clarify the points you raised. Thank you for putting in time to this.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you for your comments Anthony! I went through similar thoughts and initially worked on this with the hypothesis of a cyanolichen. When sectioning the very brittle flakes you get a lichenized crust - I am not sure if the black is caused by pigmented algae (or cyanos) on top. What do you think?

Section through a piece of the black crust showing green algea enveloped in hyphae. Topped of by black cells.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 12d

I'm not asking for species ID - I just want to get some idea what kind of organism this is. Some kind of truffle? @hilaryrosed.bsky.social

Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 12d

I have no clue what I found here, on sandy soil (in shaded forest) between moss. Small round spherules, heavily melanized all throughout. Cut surface grainy. On microscopic view (squash) some oil bubbles and hyphae but no spores or other features I could identify. What is this?

Two black shiny structures protruding between moss in sandy soil. Approximately 1 mm in diameter.

Cut surface of black globular structure, homogeneously black with grainy texture.

squished microscopic preparation with large air bubbles, black fungal? elements and small oil droplets.

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 13d

Maybe (!) a slight brown tinge in the ap. centre when wetted. Large-ish elipsoid spores ~25x9 µm and pigmented epihymenium and thallus. Green algae. C-.

I think this could be Clauzadea metzleri.

What do you think?

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 13d

I would like to share a #lichen I am working on for the last 2 nights (not finished yet) and would appreciate some input.
On soft limestone with V. muralis, V. nigrescens and S. pruinosa. Black flaky thallus and black adpressed to slightly immeresed apothecia, swelling convex when wet. 1/

"Birds eye" view of the black flaky lichen on limestone next to verrucaria nigrescens (right) and Verrucaria muralis (bottom left) and Sarcogyne pruinosa (top centre)

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Peter Braubach @peterbraubach.bsky.social · 13d

Never gets old - Pin #lichen Chaenotheca trichialis with some pruina on the stalk and around the base of the head. Rectangular green algae (Stichococcus) and globose pigmented spores.

Collected today on oak bark on a playground near Hannover.

Grey green thallus of a lichen with pin shaped apothecia with fluffy top.

Section of an apothecium in water with the spores washing off.

Detail of the algea, rectangular and green.

Detail of the spores, golden brown, round (in water)

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