Zone 1 in our front yard is just a sliver of planter and concrete beneath the entrance stairs, but the biodiversity is amazing. One of my surprise discoveries is this clump of yellow-green lichen growing on an old brick planter.
Lichen are amazing living organisms. The Lichens of North America web page explains that lichen are fungi that do not make their own food so they have found a way to include algae or cyanobacteria in their systems to internally grow their own nutrition.
These joint efforts of life have the ability to live in harsh conditions - on rocks & sidewalks, in deserts or tundra, on cliff faces and human ruins. They survive under snow providing food for caribou and arctic rodents. Some thrive on wet tree bark and create food and nesting materials for forest creatures.
Lichens grow slowly and some may be among the oldest living things on the planet. The lichen on this brick never really caught my eye before. I don’t know how long it has been there. And that is the tricky thing about lichen: small and typically low to the ground, it is easy to miss. But because lichens protect themselves by producing chemical herbicides and even antibiotics, they could provide important pharmacological discoveries for humans. Small life must be mighty to survive. But if they are slow growing, how fast can they adapt to climate change?
Lichen are also beautiful. Check out the Lichens Home Page for some stunning photos. I think I even found my lichen, it may be Caloplaca feracissima.
Something ancient, lichen, and something new, the Internet, working together to help us see the biodiversity in our own backyards.
Lichens of North America http://www.lichen.com/index.html
I’m still entering all of the data for species in Zone 1 for my Backyard Biodiversity Project. But there is an unexpected resident in this small Zone of stairs, cement and a narrow planter. Zone Map
This is an arrow-headed flatworm (Bipalium kewensis) a species of planarian. These are the kind of creatures that you may have experimented with in biology class dividing their bodies in a variety of ways to see that they can regenerate themselves if they have some part of a head.
The arrow-headed flatworm is an exotic species thought to be an Indo-Malayan import that came to the U.S. via Europe.
How did this creature come to be in my planter? How long have its ancestors frequented my neighborhood?
I found it under a brick in the planter. Interestingly, when I looked at the photos I realized that it appears to have some nasty gashes along its sides. And actually it seemed to be regenerating most of its head. How did it come to have these injuries? Did it encounter some kind of a predator? And what was that predator? Was it the resident of the cave?
It amazes me the stories you can discover when you look under a rock.
Zone 1 always surprises me. Zone Map
If I asked you what wildlife I might find in this small area of the yard, you might say a few ants and a spider or two. In the past this strip of cement walkway, stairs and a narrow planter has revealed numerous species of spiders. Zone 1 in summer 2007.
So far this February the variety of species has been down, probably due to the season. But the winter-blooming berginia is looking lovely, see blooms.
This short retaining wall at the edge of the walkway has an intriguing little cave. At the left side, where there is a triangular opening, a pile of debris is stacking up. Are these the remains of someone’s meals?
It is an interesting collection that the cave’s resident has pushed out its door. There are empty brown garden snail shells; some fragmented by strong jaws. Could the owner of the lair be a southern alligator lizard? A foot-long individual was seen in this area last summer.
But there are also holly-leaf cherry pits that have been gnawed open and the seed inside eaten. Is some kind of native mouse living in this dark dwelling?
Some animal is living in this tiny cave and if you are snail, you might just consider it a dragon.
