The Amazing World of Lichen

I'm Lichen It!
So the Black Squirrel Diaries are back after a long, unexpected hiatus. This is due to a few important factors that started with two solid weeks of pouring rain in late June/early July, death and mayhem around the 4th, crashing the laptop while trying to update the anti-virus software around the middle of July, and then losing the cord to plug the camera into the laptop to download the pictures. All of this has given me new perspective and profound respect for the regularity of Robb and Lisa's blog entries, as well as the diversity of topics and the creativity and beauty of the photography.

This current posting to The Black Squirrel Diaries was inspired by this late June entry offered up on HowsRobb. I suggest you review that entry to refresh your memory -- Lisa described an exquisite day and included some startling pictures of the colorful lichen growing on the farm buildings and railings of the park they visited. It is worth re-reading just to enjoy that day again, but also to understand why lichen can be so galvanizing a topic.

On the Hunt
There are not many good sources of lichen in NYC. Lichen seems to prefer rotting wood or other organic matter in moist locations and we mostly have concrete here. There are some interesting molds that sometimes grow in the plaster walls of pre-war buildings though


You can find molds like these in many buildings. Sometimes they grow behind your couch and you don't even know it, because really, when do you start moving your couch looking for mold? This one, luckily, is not in a building that I live in. Some molds can actually make you very sick, while others are simple allergens, and others just look nasty.


This is a close up of mold spores. I didn't take this picture (you can tell because A) you can actually see it and B) I do not have a microscopic zoom lens and C) I doubt I could work it if I did). Actually, I am finding that being an Urban Naturalist has some advantages as nothing is more natural than taking your laptop to Starbucks to download mold pictures for your blog.

If you want to learn about the diseases that are caused by mold or see pictures, you can click HERE. (I'm not sure that this is a particularly useful link to most people, but click HERE and you can see what's playing at the Loews 25 Megaplex in Times Square and even buy movie tickets)

Mold is not very photogenic, but it does stand still. Mold is not very useful either. Lichens, however, can be great. Below is a recipe I found for lichen soup. Please note that the Naturalist who created this soup is about as up on his Species Classifications as I am . . . and note the precaution about making sure you are using the right lichen!

Lichen Soup
from the staff at Camp Wannekita, Haliburton Ontario/Algonquin Provincial Park

You need a couple of good handfuls of the greyish light green lichen (botanical name?) that grows on the rocks in northern ontario (Algonquin Park)

Directions

Place the rinsed clean lichen in a boiling pot of water (no drying or curing the plant necessary).
Boil for 15 minutes or so, strain and let cool a bit. Then you have your own fine and reputably nourishing wilderness brew!! Medicinal properties unknown...
Note: Taught to counsellors in training as part of survival lore [always be sure of plant identifications when gathering from the wild]

Urban Growth
In searching for Urban Lichen, I came across serveral of my favorite bits of Urban detritus:



I don't know the proper name, but I have always called them Gum Spots. When I was little, I thought they actually were blobs of gum, and they do stick to your shoe sometimes. But then I started to think about and couldn't figure why gum globs would be found all over some sections of pavement and not on others. And why were all of these people dropping all of this gum? It really makes no sense, but in my mind, they are Gum Spots.




All of these Gum Spots are from the 8th Avenue subway platform at 23rd street (above). I saw these waiting for the C-train to take me home (not the famous A-train, but still plenty of G-spots to go around).







I don't know why that last one is pink, but sometimes there are colored Gum Spots that don't turn black.


There is other ick that you can find in the subways, but unlike gum spots, I try not to look too closely at this stuff. It is more in the mold family that we learned about at the beginning of this blog post. But it is a living thing and it should be respected.



That spot is a really enormous one outside of my apartment building. I put the car tire in there so you could see it in comparison. Most are between quarter sized and silver dollar sized.




I noticed this on my sidewalk while I was taking Gum Spot pictures. This cool manhole cover is not for the sewer, but for the coal shoot. The date on cover is 1919 - most of the buildings along this side of Central Park were built in the late 1800s to early 1900s and used coal heat. I like that the cover is decorated in stars - the same style you might expect to find on the original Wonder Woman's uniform.

















Now, this isn't lichen either, but it is a lot prettier then gum spots or mold. Sometimes I walk to work with my friend Richard and we take different routes. I live on 107th street next to central park, and I work at 26th street btwn 10th and 11th Aves, practically along the Hudson River.

It is about a five and a half mile walk, and sometimes we walk along riverside drive and riverside park. From there, you can take the river walk all the way down to battery park at the very bottom of Manhattan. There are bicycle and roller-blading paths next to walking paths. This is an art installation made of colored ropes and knots along the river walk. It's color and sprawl are a surprisingly refreshing contrast to the paved walkways, steel blue water and grey concrete bridges. It's sort of like man-made lichen, so I am including it here.
















That's all for now! Maybe next week, we'll try back packing through Chinatown . . . ?

The First Foray

Hi Robb and Lisa! Welcome to my very first blog posting ever. I feel so technological - and yet, so rudimentary. So all of this blogging you have been doing has really inspired me (in more ways than one!) so I thought I would create my own blog and show you what I did today.
To make it really cool, my Dad gave my an early birthday present -- my very first digital camera! So now I can finally take all sorts of pictures just like you do. Well, probably not as good as you do, or as interesting, but gosh, they're photos!

Since you do all of that nature walking and stuff, I've been really wanting to show you some of the wildlife in my neck of the Urban Jungle. My new apartment is right next to Central Park - sort of our very own Amazon right here between 115th and 59th Street.


Above, this pond with the weeping willow and the city in the background is really close to the 110th street entrance to the park - but I don't know exactly where it is, because I don't have a park map. But Lewis and Clark didn't have a map - they just had that nice Indian Lady who they put on those gold dollar coins. I don't have anyone with tracking skills and stuff like that, but I do have my friend Richard (below) who is the Costume Shop Manager at Cedar Lake and helped me take these pictures. He is very funny, but tends to scare away the birds.


I was really excited to head out this morning and I thought I'd try to capture a picture of the famous Black Squirrels of Central Park. They aren't only in Central Park, they have migrated all around the city and I used to see lots of them when I lived in Inwood and hiked around Fort Tryon Park, Inwood Hill Park and Isham Park. So I thought today, it would be great to show you those little guys. But I saw lots of other stuff too. Below are some of the flowers I saw while we were walking on the bridle path:


This is a Hancock Coralberry. There are big bushes of them along the bridle path on the west side of the park. Lots of people like to stretch next to them before they go jogging, but I don't know why.

Did you know that Central Park is completely man made? Every mound of earth, every rock, every puddle and pond was created by Olmstead to create the perfect park environment. So nothing exists in the park that was not put there in the 1850s.



This is a tiger lilly - they grow in droves along the banks of the Reservoir. Since all of the earth and water in the park is man made, every single plant, tree, blade of grass was planted in specific locations. Park Conservancy includes maintaining those plants which have become "indigenous" to the design of the park.





Here are some more things in the park that were meticulously chosen and placed by the Architechts:















I know these look pretty ordinary - but they are part of the grand design of Central Park!

















I had a great time taking pictures of all of these flowers, but had little luck with the BSCP. Normally bold, they must have scented me by my deli coffee and egg and cheese sandwich, and perhaps took to the tree tops to avoid detection. I did find some other wildlife though:





This wolf-like creature is a Central Park Frisbee Dog (note the limp disk carried proudly between his vice-like jaws)


There were tons of great birds around - but none of them would stay still. I think Central Park Birds must be more skiddish then their tamed, west coast cousins. This is a Robin Red Breast. There were also sparrows, sea gulls and pigeons - none of which was as cooperative as this fuzzy little guy. If you squint, you can imagine him bopping around on his little fence post there. It was quite a sight.


Here is the Common Jogger. Plenty of those out today. Interesting creatures, as they tend to start out in solos or pairs, but you see them traveling together in packs - sort of like lemmings, but without the cliff.

And this, is the more rare HNB Jogger - this is a decent specimen, but usually you wish they would put their shirts back on and return to the ranks of the Common Jogger. These are very hard to photograph as they tend to think you are a pervert or something if you chase HNBs with a camera. I pretended to be taking a picture of Richard and then swung the camera around at the last minute, creating that amazing blurry effect that I have been perfecting.

Ah, at last! A place to quench our thirst and satiate our empty stomachs. The trail has been hard today, but we are only half way through the park, and still seeking the elusive BSCP.

I remained really captivated by the flowers and trees, and since they tended to be more coorperative subjects, I took more pictures of them:








This is a giant Poof Tree that was growing near some random statue by 86th Street on the West Side. It looks like we have discovered where all of that cat hair has been going!











I took a close up of the Poof Tree so that you could see I was only kidding about the cat hair. Of course, the poof is blurry, but my thumb is looking pretty good. Now, that's before the manicure I had at the end of the day, so you can see where my cuticles are a little ragged and the nail needs shaping. I try to photograph things with my hand in the picture so that you can see that I actually do have hands and the opposable parts are still working.




There are something like 26,000 species of plants in the park, spread out over 843 acres. Luckily, there are some convenient identifcation markers, like this:


The Shakespeare Garden is right next to the Delacourt Theater and the Marionette Theater. There were no puppets out today though. But we did wander around the garden and read little shakespeare quotes that had to do with flowers. No real hints about what this stuff is, but a pansy is a pansy is a pansy, right?



These are blue, fuzzy pom pom things. They don't look very Shakespearian, but I'm sure Ophelia would not have minded going crazy with these to scatter about










I think that this is a gerber daisy. I got some once in a bouquet and it looked pretty much like this. These are not Shakesperian either.

This is another kind of pink flower. It might be rue - it was by a Hamlet quote. But I don't think so. It does look Sonnet-worthy though. The best part about the garden was it was shady, and the water sprinklers were on and made a cooling mist -- it was like being in a rain forest.




















Here are some blurry, wet flowers. Sorry, no scat of any kind in the Shakespeare Garden.
At the edge of the Shakespeare Garden is Belvedere Castle and the turtle pond. I tried to take pictures of the turtles, but they were really far away and the zoom only made them look like very round rocks. I did go up in the tower though:


And I got a really good shot of backstage at MacBeth, with the city in the background.


There were no Black Squirrels all day. I was disappointed, but I did make friends with some other creatures -- and finally, found something that would stand still!!!


And when in Rome . . .


He is a better kisser than my last boyfriend - and seems like a stable personality. Rock solid - someone you can really lean on.

Sorry there were no Black Squirrels, that I didn't know the names of any plants, and that I still don't know how to focus my camera. But at least we now have three goals for the next blog entry!

Tune in next week when my assistant, Richard, goes wading in the Harlem Meer to find an alligator to wrestle while I stand at a safe distance and try to figure out how to work the zoom lens.