Mossy Trees

Li·chen : līkən : [noun] : a simple slow-growing plant that typically forms a low crusty, leaf-like, or branching growth on rocks, walls, and trees.

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These stunted looking bare winter trees

are thickly covered in ‘Bride’s Feathers’ or ‘Goat’s Beard’ lichen.

I was actually trying to get a good shot of a seasonal waterfall due to all the heavy,

heavy rains for the last several months.

Driving along with my driver’s side window down,

crawling along the strip of blacktop,

craning my neck to look up,

I saw this rock face I’d never seen before.

Growing on a tall rock face in east Lewis County along Springbrook Road,

they were a total surprise to me.

I cannot fully express why,

but for some reason these trees clinging tenaciously to the top of a 200 foot rock face

make me think of some of the photos I’ve seen of trees in Japan.

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The lichens covering these trees looks like soft lace, doesn’t it?

The color is almost ghostly.

I have a fascination for ferns, lichens and moss,

and I live in a great place to explore their many varieties and beauty.

We currently live in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in southwest Washington state,

and our area receives an annual average rainfall of 75 inches,

about half that of the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula.

Our rainy, sometimes soggy hills and valleys grow

thick forests and abundant ferns, fungi, lichens and mosses.

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Lichens are defined as a simple, slow-growing plant,

but to me they are incredible beautiful!

Often they are a light sage color, looking almost like there is no color at all.

That is because lichens and other fungi are not capable of of photosynthesis,

because they do not have the green pigment chlorophyll,

which explains their soft coloration

and they fact that they get their nourishment from the host plant they live on or in.

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Whatever it is in science,

though true,

doesn’t change their loveliness

nor appeal to me.

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Blessings,