Re:The Life of a Lichenologist
by Alex3917 on Friday May 27, 2016 @03:13PM
(#11788213)
Although I find lichenology to be kind of boring, the fieldguides for it are outrageously good. Unlike with mushroom books, the lichens in the pictures pretty much always look exactly like the ones in real life. And since lichens are much easier to photograph, the photos tend to be much much better also.
There's also a really easy onramp into the hobby. Because in most cities there are only a handful of species due to their pollution sensitivity, you can pretty much figure out what they all are just by guess and check. And then once you learn the basics, you can start going out into the suburbs. There is a good list of all the species in NYC here: http://lichens.nyc/
It also doesn't matter what season it is, whether or not it's recently rained, etc. And given that roughly 100% of trees have lichens on them, if you can find a tree then you've probably found enough stuff to spend an afternoon looking at.
There's also a really easy onramp into the hobby. Because in most cities there are only a handful of species due to their pollution sensitivity, you can pretty much figure out what they all are just by guess and check. And then once you learn the basics, you can start going out into the suburbs. There is a good list of all the species in NYC here: http://lichens.nyc/
It also doesn't matter what season it is, whether or not it's recently rained, etc. And given that roughly 100% of trees have lichens on them, if you can find a tree then you've probably found enough stuff to spend an afternoon looking at.