Parmotrema Lichen

The woods were cool and bright this afternoon as we hiked around in the crunchy, dry leaves, and stepped over numerous dead tree branches full of lichen. On one small branch near Meetinghouse Creek grew this beautiful Parmotrema perforatum lichen, covered with little brown-velvet-lined cups. Each cup had a little hole at the bottom. I sat on the ground and leaned against an oak tree for an hour or so to draw the small bunches of lichen. A Red-bellied Woodpecker chattered and chirred nearby, and a Blue Jay called his name somewhere across the pipeline, otherwise it was silent. Daisy slept beside me. Her friend, Atticus, who had hiked to the creek with us, became bored with me when I stopped to draw and took off on an adventure. He returned as we headed back uphill, toward home.