Moss Plants and More: calendar

Showing posts with label calendar. Show all posts

December 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Do you know this moss? After our run-in at the herbarium last week we are besties. Stay tuned for a post later in the week about my mossy adventures with this character.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use Image as Desktop Picture" or "Save Image As...". The wording may vary. (If saving the image to your computer is the only option, then locate it on your computer and choose the "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use Image as Desktop Picture" option from there.)

3 - If the image does not fit your desktop neatly, you may have to adjust the image (Mac: System Preferences - Desktop and Screen Saver - Desktop; Windows: Control Panel - Display - Desktop) and choose "Fill screen" as the display mode of your background image.

November 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Wednesday, November 04, 2015

The name of this moss describes some of the features that make this species easy to recognize. It is the moss Acrocladium auriculatum. If we break down the name the genus means "acro-" = tip/apical + "-cladium" = branch, which describes the highly pointed branches tips. The specific epithet describes the heart shaped leaves; they are shaped like two earlobes at the base ("auricul-" = ear/earlobe). This species is native to southwestern South America and I came across it during my travels this year to Chile.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

October 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Monday, October 05, 2015

Another moss from my trip to southern Chile this past January. Unfortunately I don't have an id for this one. If anyone has any thoughts on a name for this moss, drop me a message in the comments.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

September 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Some Grimmiaceae mosses hanging out with an intensely yellow lichen pal
from the 2015 SO BE FREE moss foray in the San Bernardino Mountains of California.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

August 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Saturday, August 01, 2015

A crispy patch of Gemmabryum mosses from the 2015 SO BE FREE

moss foray in the San Bernardino mountains.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

July 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Some lovely liverworts from Chile to grace your desktop this month!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

June 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Monday, June 01, 2015

Another group of mosses from my bryological adventures in Chile this past winter!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

May 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Monday, May 04, 2015

Some red Sphagnum mosses mixed in with a succulent vascular plant from my travels to Chile this past winter. Oh to be walking barefoot on the cool wet peat. It would be a great contrast to the warm weather we have been having here in Davis already. Full-blown summer is just around the corner!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

April 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Thursday, April 02, 2015

Another moss from my adventures in Chile.

I think the peltate/umbrella shape of this moss is really great!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

March 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Monday, March 02, 2015

Some mosses in the genus Bryum from my travels to Chile. Happy March!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

February 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Friday, February 06, 2015

Happy belated February! This past month was a whirlwind of science and adventures for me. I spent the past month in Chile attending the International Association of Bryologists conference and then I went backpacking for a few weeks. I have hundreds of bryophyte photos and many fun stories to tell. As soon as I get settled in my plan is to share many of them with you all here.

So stay tuned for tales from Chile. In the meantime enjoy the Tetraplodon pictured below. We saw it while walking around in a Sphagnum-dominated peat bog barefoot!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

January 2015 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Sunday, January 04, 2015

I spent the holidays visiting family in Cincinnati, Ohio and got some nice shots of mosses peaking through the cracks in my mom's back patio. I took two photos that I thought would make a nice January calendar.

The moss shown in the photos doesn't look like Bryum argenteum (the silver sidewalk moss). I saw some of that nearby and the leaves were smaller and more closely appressed at the top. No moss books with me here, so a final identification may have to wait until I am back in California.

Happy New Year!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

October 2014 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Friday, October 03, 2014

Another moss from my August vacation to New York and Connecticut. This one is Atrichum crispum. Unlike other Atrichum species, this one does not have lamellae running down the midrib. It has relatively large translucent leaves and teeth on the edges. The leaf blade is smooth but slightly folded into a V when wet. It is a bit challenging to tell this one from a Miniaceae without capsules. The capsules of Atrichum release spores via a salt-shaker mechanism, whereas the Miniaceae have peristome teeth that move in response to changes in humidity.

Fortunately I had my handy Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians field guide with me to help with this identification.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

September 2014 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Tuesday, September 02, 2014

We are off on vacation this week visiting friends and family in New York and Connecticut. On one of our hikes we came across this great patch of Leucobryum. I couldn't decide which shot I liked better for the calendar so I put it together for both. Enjoy!

September Desktop Calendar - Option #1

September Desktop Calendar - Option #2

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

August 2014 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Sunday, August 03, 2014

I met this moss, Scouleria aquatica, on the bryology field trip before this year's botany conference. In its current state it doesn't look very aquatic. It was growing on the rocks at the edge of the river in a zone that would be completely flooded in the springtime. During that time of the year it grows as a completely submerged aquatic moss. For the other part of the year it is high and dry for months at a time. When dry, they are in a state of suspended animation. Not photosynthesizing or growing at all.

We added a bit of water to this patch and it made a dramatic change to the mosses appearance. The edges are gray, sandy, and dry, whereas the plants in the center are hydrated and green. It is amazing how rapidly mosses can take up water and start photosynthesizing.

August Calendar

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

July 2014 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Tuesday, July 01, 2014

July Desktop Calendar

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

June 2014 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Sunday, June 01, 2014

Some mosses with a friendly fungi : )

June Desktop Calendar

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

May 2014 Desktop Calendar

By Jessica M. Budke on Monday, May 05, 2014

This is another moss from my March trip to Yosemite National Park. Since I found it in a park, I don't have collection to help with the identification and it doesn't look like a species I encountered on the SOBEFREE foray. Thus I don't have an identification for this spectacular little plant.

Does it look familiar to anyone? A pleurocarpous moss growing on granite in the Sierra Nevada mountains. If you have a guess please share it in the comments section. Thanks!

May Desktop Calendar

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

Learning mosses at SOBEFREE

By Jessica M. Budke on Tuesday, April 15, 2014

At the end of March I attended the SOBEFREE foray with amateur and professional bryologists from across California and beyond. I highly recommend attending this foray, especially if you live in California. This year we went to some really great locations in Santa Cruz county and I learned tons of California mosses. The days are spent hiking and collecting mosses with our permits in hand. Then the evenings we all gather around our microscopes to look at the plants and to identify them to species.

With my new skills in hand, I decided to take a look at some of my older photos to see if I could make any identifications. I looked at my desktop calendar from January and now recognize the species. It is Dendroalsia abietina! It is a super common moss on trees in California. When dry the leaves curl downward and may remind you of a clenched fist. When wet, the fronds are splayed out and form an array of small shelves across the trunk. Peek beneath the fronds to find the short sporophytes hiding on the undersides in clusters. I love learning the names of new plants, especially mosses. I often think of it as making new botanical friends.

Being out in the field and looking at plants was such a great change of pace from being in the laboratory. I am hoping that I can make it to the Schofield Bryophyte and Lichen foray up in British Columbia this fall. I don't think the time and location have been announced yet. As soon as I hear I will share it here on the blog.

It would also be nice to stop by the University of British Columbia while up in Canada to meet the chemists I am collaborating with. I have only interacted with them through email and skype. It would be great to see them and their lab setup in person.

Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement about SOBEFREE 2015, which will be held in March somewhere in California. I will most certainly be there next year!

March 2014 Desktop Calendar at Yosemite

By Jessica M. Budke on Friday, March 14, 2014

I took some time off this week and went camping in Yosemite National Park. It was my first time there and it was an amazing visit. Granite mountains, boulders covered in mosses, and tough trees clinging to cliffs. Yes, I mentioned rocks three times in the same sentence. Geology is everywhere in Yosemite! If I had grown up in the west, I am convinced I would have been a geologist rather than a botanist. The plant to rock ratio is skewed completely in the opposite direction from the eastern deciduous forests that I grew up surrounded by in the midwest.

The geology of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is an interesting tale. The vast majority of the exposed rock is granite and was formed millions of years ago deep underground from magma. As time passed erosion of the layers above, glaciation, and uplifting exposed the upper layers of these rocks. Giving us literally translated from Spanish the "snowy mountain range" of the Sierra Nevada.

Unfortunately for the water situation in California there was not much snow in the mountains when we visited last weekend. Just the tops retained a light dusting of snow and the vast majority of the trails were open and dry. If you are in the area I would highly recommend a visit to this lovely park. Just beware, Yosemite is one of the most highly visited national parks in the United States and I hear that the summer crowds can be intense, especially in the valley.

Overall it was a much needed vacation and a spectacular piece of nature to visit. I was also very impressed by the accessibility of many of the waterfalls and nature trails. A number of them are paved with flat to mild grades. It is great to see a national park making all of its scenic treasures available to a wide audience!

Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

March Desktop Calendar

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.