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Index of Subjects This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_NRYrxTafOolWxIQaf6RJQQ) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hello Peter, Your "fuzzy stuff" growing on the trees are lichens. This is clearly an Usnea species (a so-called Beard Lichen) but there are several of these in NS. It looks most like Usnea longissima (Methusaleh's Beard Lichen) which can be up to 3 m long!! BTW, lichens do not harm the tree and use it simply as a substrate, i.e. a place to grow. There is an increasing number of people in the province interested in learning about lichens, especially since they are a valuable natural indicator of air quality. In fact, the Usnea lichens in particular are very intolerant of pollution and are hard to find, say, on the Halifax peninsula. We have a few small Usnea lichens growing on a dead Larch in our backyard and as the air quality improves more, they can get very large. Yours is a very healthy population and clearly the air quality is very high!! Cheers, Bob McDonald Clayton Park West Halifax ----- Original Message ----- From: Peter dewit To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:09 PM Subject: [NatureNS] Fuzzy "stuff" on trees, ID? Noticed the "fuzz" growing on the trees at Thomas Cove Coastal Reserve, Headlands Trail when hiking on Saturday (sept 9th) I'm not familiar with what it is. They were growing on the base of the trees, probably taking over the lower 3-5 feet of branches that started at about 6 feet off the ground, almost no leaves on those branches, and they were on parts of the trunk. Above that area the trees looked normal. I did not think to stop and record the type of tree or photograph more of it while I was on a fast walking pace. It was very dry to touch, probably makes a good fire starter when in neeed. Some photos included here: http://halifaxns.net/peterpictures/thomascove/thomascove18.JPG http://halifaxns.net/peterpictures/thomascove/thomascove19.JPG ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.3/445 - Release Date: 9/11/2006 --Boundary_(ID_NRYrxTafOolWxIQaf6RJQQ) Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>Hello Peter,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Your "fuzzy stuff" growing on the trees are lichens. This is clearly an Usnea species (a so-called Beard Lichen) but there are several of these in NS. It looks most like Usnea longissima (Methusaleh's Beard Lichen) which can be up to 3 m long!!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>BTW, lichens do not harm the tree and use it simply as a substrate, i.e. a place to grow. There is an increasing number of people in the province interested in learning about lichens, especially since they are a valuable natural indicator of air quality. In fact, the Usnea lichens in particular are very intolerant of pollution and are hard to find, say, on the Halifax peninsula. We have a few small Usnea lichens growing on a dead Larch in our backyard and as the air quality improves more, they can get very large. Yours is a very healthy population and clearly the air quality is very high!!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Cheers,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Bob McDonald</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Clayton Park West</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Halifax</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=peterdewit@gmail.com href="mailto:peterdewit@gmail.com">Peter dewit</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=naturens@chebucto.ns.ca href="mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca">naturens@chebucto.ns.ca</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:09 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [NatureNS] Fuzzy "stuff" on trees, ID?</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Noticed the "fuzz" growing on the trees at Thomas Cove Coastal Reserve, Headlands Trail when hiking on Saturday (sept 9th)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm not familiar with what it is. They were growing on the base of the trees, probably taking over the lower 3-5 feet of branches that started at about 6 feet off the ground, almost no leaves on those branches, and they were on parts of the trunk. Above that area the trees looked normal. I did not think to stop and record the type of tree or photograph more of it while I was on a fast walking pace. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It was very dry to touch, probably makes a good fire starter when in neeed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Some photos included here:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://halifaxns.net/peterpictures/thomascove/thomascove18.JPG">http://halifaxns.net/peterpictures/thomascove/thomascove18.JPG</A></DIV> <DIV><A href="http://halifaxns.net/peterpictures/thomascove/thomascove19.JPG">http://halifaxns.net/peterpictures/thomascove/thomascove19.JPG</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P> <HR> <P></P>No virus found in this incoming message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.3/445 - Release Date: 9/11/2006<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML> --Boundary_(ID_NRYrxTafOolWxIQaf6RJQQ)--