Amateur mycologist and lichenologist (emphasis on the amateur)
Would like to switch out the objectives for my swift 380T, any reccomendations?
I will be making sure they are the right objectives in every way before I purchase anything. I'd just like to know where I can start looking. I added a 60x a while back, it was really cheap but works surprisingly well considering I payed like 20$ CAD for it. Parfocality is just about the same as my stock objectives, just a slight turn of the fine focus. That said, I'd like to spend more and get a whole new set of higher quality objectives.
I'd love to hear feedback if someone here has switched out objectives on this particular model. I do not need to hear that my microscope sucks haha, I'm a hobbyist so its not a big concern of mine at this time.
We could do with a lichen community, just saying. Definitely fits within mycology but lichenology can easily stand on its own.
Nice, they sort of grow around my area but are very elusive
We have a fruiting chamber set up, its an old grow tent with ventilation, lights and a fogger. Honestly, if I wasn't for the heavy spore load I would say this would grow well on a counter top. This is my first reishi grow so I am not very experienced with this species so take that with a grain of salt.
They absolutely do hahah
Not yet, I do regularly have reishi powder or extract in my coffee though but I've never had homegrown.
These take a bit of getting used to for sure and quite some time before the mycelium matures. I thought they'd never get there. Substrate is straight hardwood fuel pellets. I inoculated these in November and they colonised within a few weeks but I left them until they began to sort of grow antlers (actually left them longer because I got busy with work). I started fruiting them 4 weeks ago give or take. Temps were probably around 16-20°C normally. I bumped the humidity down to 60 or 70%.
They look almost identical to each other but I believe G. tsugae tends to favour conifer, I grew this on hardwood.
My first time growing Ganoderma lucidum
I normally grow things like pioppino, lions mane and oysters, this is my first time growing a polypore. It took a long time, many months haha. I think this was inoculated back in november and I just got around to fruiting a few weeks ago. Lots of spore samples to put under the microscope, let me tell you.
Lichens take a very long time to regenerate, most only grow a few mm a year. Some are protected or endangered on top of that. A good example is Lobaria pulmonaria, highly sought after by dyers because it produces a rich orange/brown dye in wool and other fibres. L. pulmonaria takes a considerable amount of time to grow, the thallus (body) only begins to reproduce after 25 years so is mainly found in older growth forests. Depending on the area, a person could come through and decimate a population just trying to collect enough material to dye a sweater. I'm not saying you should never harvest any lichen (its often unavoidable for ID purposes) but it is always a good idea to be conscious of your impact on a population of very slow growing organisms. The best way to harvest lichens is to salvage it off the ground after a wind storm or something like that, when lichens detach from the substrate they are rarely able adapt to the new environment and eventually die so its not as big a deal if you take that home because its going to decompose anyway. I have also seen where folks harvest no more than 1/10th of the population or harvest the outer edges of the thallus so that most of the colony remains. Really just depends.
Very cool, Cladonia always make me happy
Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia + 5% KOH makes a gorgeous pigment
Went out to take a look at some massive colonies of Xanthoparmelia growing on a rock face. 5% potassium hydroxide test results in a nice deep yellow, almost green stain on the upper cortex. The medula is also K+, turning a deep blood red/orange. I blotted the soaked lichen on some paper and got this beautiful golden-rod ink. This ink was produced from less than a cm2 of lichen and a couple drops of KOH. I would love to experiment more given the abundance of this lichen and the small amount of material needed to produce the ink. This photo was taken 24hrs after staining the paper but I'd need to further test the colour fastness.
Edit: I am conscious of ethical harvesting practices for lichens, I normally only harvest for identification purposes and even then I try to only collect samples detached from the substrate.
Peniophora rufa
Red tree brain fungus, love to see this guy. Typically only find it on fallen branches that are very soggy but not super rotted.
Physcia sp. growing on an apple branch
Beautiful lichen I don't see a lot, its probably very common in my area but just not in my normal spots. Apothecia are striking, hope I find more.
I have a site I run on amateur mycology/lichenology. citizenmycology.ca
Cladonia sp. in spruce forest
Definitely in my top 3 favourite genera of lichenized fungi. So photogenic too, I always get down on my knees for pixie cups (reindeer lichen too, if I'm being honest).
This is perfect
I can have 3 eggs and then its not so much that I full as it is I am violently ill. Egg intolerance? idk
Rusavskia elegans, probably my favorite lichen.
Found growing on concrete but I also often find it on metal. Anyone have any idea why it was changed back to Xanthoria elegans in Macrolichens of the PNW?