Like, what is
that green, gray or yellow stuff you see clinging to and hanging
from the twigs, trees and fenceposts as you hike through Quail
Hollow?
Most likely it is lichen.
Lichen is what’s known as a composite organism made up of a
symbiotic (cooperative) relationship between a fungus that covers
and protects green algae whose chlorophyll provides the
photosynthesis that feeds itself and the fungus.
Lichens are known to survive extreme environmental conditions
including the Arctic tundra and the driest deserts.
However, because of their structure lichens accumulate toxins from
the air, and like the canary in the mine, if lichens start dying
off, you know you have trouble.
Lichens come in many forms:
crustose (paint-like, flat)
filamentous (hair-like)
foliose (leafy)
fruticose (branched)
leprose (powdery)
squamulose (consisting of small scale-like structures)
gelatinous (cyanobacterial)
The tree that
towers above the cache is a Pacific Ponderosa Pine Pinus
benthamiana endemic (grows only here)t to the Sandhills of Santa
Cruz County and differing from the more common intermountain Pinus
ponderosa.