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All deer lichen identification on this site is tentative. What do you expect from me, an artist/technical writer? I try to provide handles, tags, names, labels, whatever can help communication and documentation of what I find. Here are examples of my process, showing the kinds of progress, needs, and problems I'm having. Latest entries go at the top of the list.
- Compare New Jersey false reindeer lichen to Florida deer lichens in a Seaside Ampitheatre panorama.
- Reindeer lichen species on the Emerald Coast and pages from the book Lichens of North America.
- Panorama with deer lichen diversity.
- Call for experts to identify local deer lichens.
- Problem with a recent entry entry on the list of links: Wikipedia reindeer moss (Cladonia rangiferina) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladonia_rangiferina, (if you click it, a window pops up so you can see what I'm talking about). In my experience, reindeer moss is the most common name for deer lichen of all kinds. My Google search for reindeer moss brings up this page as the first choice. The page is entitled Cladonia rangiferina, which is a specific lichen.
That brings up the first problem. I expect the picture to be an illustration of the page topic. Clicking on it, the Caribou_moss.jpg description says "genus Cladonia, probably (Cladonia stellaris)". I can't track down the photographer, whose other photos not of deer lichen and who is not a botanist, so can I trust his identification? This photo does not match most Cladonia rangiferina pictures, though. It does look like many local lichens in NW Florida.
Back to the page, I scroll down to "Top view of C. rangiferina". Shockingly, this also has a different name: Cladonia_portentosa_top.jpg. The page says this is a similar-looking species. I'm left wondering why the page author couldn't provide proper pictures.
Going to the source of pictures, Wikimedia Commons, the first result of a search finds Cladonia_rangiferina.jpg provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm more confident in this photo id. Searching their website seems like a good idea even though the link says FSW and the domain is fws.gov.
Back to the page, I click on Cladonia_portentosa. The picture on that page is named Cladina portentosa. And so it goes. I find clues but am not sure of results yet.
Back to Lookout 2009, Perspectives.
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