Enlichenment
If the 18th century had its Enlightenment, in the 21st century I had my enlichenment. More specifically, it came on February 23rd in Great Hills Park as I surveyed some densely covered dead branches on an elbowbush. Here for your delectation are three views of those lichens. The two pictures with dark backgrounds were taken with flash. So was the other one.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Great…I can be the first to say I’ll be a lichen these images. Lichens will be one of my concentrations this year.
Steve Gingold
March 9, 2016 at 5:08 AM
I look forward to seeing—and of course likin’— the results of your enlichening concentration.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:12 AM
I love lichen. Nice work.
Sherry Lynn Felix
March 9, 2016 at 5:31 AM
Maybe someone should create an “I ❤︎ Lichen” design.”
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:19 AM
An “I love Lichens” T-shirt is a great idea!
Lavinia Ross
March 10, 2016 at 11:04 AM
You can be the person to create one.
Steve Schwartzman
March 10, 2016 at 2:11 PM
Are you sure these are lichens? Perhaps I watch too many sci-fi movies, but they sure look like spores from an alien planet.
Mike Powell
March 9, 2016 at 5:37 AM
Sometimes I feel as if I’m the one from an alien planet. I did read a bunch of science fiction when I was young.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:21 AM
Great capture and find!
elmdriveimages
March 9, 2016 at 5:53 AM
I’ve been monitoring this elbowbush for several years, so the lichen here wasn’t a surprise.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:25 AM
I love… especially the number 3
Photo'Coeur
March 9, 2016 at 6:07 AM
Merci. That third formation does have a strange shape, doesn’t it?
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 10:28 AM
Great pun!
Michael Richards (certainline)
March 9, 2016 at 6:48 AM
I may have opened a Pundora’s box.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:26 AM
Your captures do justice to this strangely engaging otherworldly character of Mother Nature.
lensandpensbysally
March 9, 2016 at 7:13 AM
Most of these formations were smaller than they look, so photographing them wasn’t as easy as I’d originally thought it would be.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:27 AM
Then you should be really pleased with the results.
lensandpensbysally
March 9, 2016 at 10:49 AM
I am. Thanks.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:20 PM
I’ve been enlichened by your enlichenment post. Incredible detail, Steve! There are worlds within worlds within worlds and in the hands of a skilled operator such as yourself, the camera enables us to visit them.
Jane
March 9, 2016 at 7:19 AM
Worlds within world indeed. As is so often the case here, Jane, I give credit to my macro lens, without which I couldn’t have recorded these details, which were smaller than the photographs may make them appear.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 9:20 AM
Fantastic shots, and a great title! 🙂
Pit
March 9, 2016 at 7:40 AM
Thanks for appreciating both. I looked up enlightenment in German and found it’s Aufklärung. I’d remembered the main part of the word from the title of Richard Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung. So far this morning there’s no sign of the weather “klärung” up after the overnight storm.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 9:26 AM
Clever word play. Stunning photos.
Beautywhizz
March 9, 2016 at 8:37 AM
Thanks. I live in the twin worlds of words and images.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 9:27 AM
I am particularly enamored by lichen and therefore appreciate all of these. The flash resulted in some dramatic results. Nice work, as usual.
Pairodox Farm
March 9, 2016 at 2:52 PM
Eventually the sun shone through for a little while, but during most of my time photographing the lichens the sky was overcast and I couldn’t get the extended depth of field I wanted without adding the light of a flash. I think the middle picture was one in which the sun had come out, and that’s why the background isn’t dark the way it is in the other two pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:23 PM
I like lichens and these are excellent!
Heyjude
March 9, 2016 at 4:46 PM
I’ll take that as a Jude-icious comment!
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:24 PM
Both the second and third photos brought to mind barnacles, but the third, especially, looks like an encrusted piece of “something” photographed in deep ocean.
Looking at the first photo, I realized I know almost nothing about lichens. I did a little light snooping, and discovered their symbiotic relationship with algae, and this great quotation from lichenologist (!) Trevor Goward: “Lichens are fungi that have discovered agriculture.”
shoreacres
March 9, 2016 at 5:21 PM
I hadn’t thought about a maritime connection but I can see it now that you’ve suggested it.
When I learned that a lichen is made up of an alga and a fungus I thought it a strange arrangement. I still do. The statement you quoted explains that arrangement in a clever way. I’ve wondered how (and when) scientists figured out the members of the hybrid. And yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a lichenologist.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2016 at 8:30 PM
Amazing Steve .. You need lots of clean air for lichen growth. Many of our trees are covered in it …
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 11, 2016 at 1:39 PM
I’m all for lichen-covered trees, photographically speaking. When I was in NZ I photographed some curious-looking lichens on a rock:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/new-zealand-unusually-curvaceous-lichen/
I wish I’d seen some on trees like the ones you mentioned.
Steve Schwartzman
March 11, 2016 at 1:46 PM
Wow that rock is amazing. I’m for ever defluffing the odd tree in the orchard .. Don’t know why I bother 😃
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 11, 2016 at 2:12 PM
That’s an interesting way you put it: “defluffing the odd tree.” The math[s] man in me immediately had the idea that you’re leaving the even-numbered trees alone.
Steve Schwartzman
March 11, 2016 at 3:02 PM
Ha ha and you are a mathematician too! Oh bonus .. You are making me grin this am Steve! Nope not the odds or evens .. The ones that look like they have beards 😄
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 11, 2016 at 3:26 PM
Uh oh: I have a grey beard, so I hope that doesn’t mean I need defluffing.
I taught math[s] on and off for 40 years, and although it’s been a while since then, my mind still readily makes mathematical associations.
Steve Schwartzman
March 11, 2016 at 3:31 PM
Oh my that beard sounds flash! 40 years .. Wow Steve I nearly fell off my seat! Did you teach at college / uni?
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 11, 2016 at 3:53 PM
There’s another New Zealandism: flash.
I’m sorry I risked having you fall off your seat. I wouldn’t want to be the cause of any bruises or broken bones.
I taught secondary math, some of it in high schools and some if it in what we in the USA call community college.
Steve Schwartzman
March 11, 2016 at 6:02 PM
Well done Mr Schwartzman! Maths was literally my worst subject. I think you would have made a ‘top’ teacher 😀
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 11, 2016 at 7:15 PM
The key is to get a good foundation in elementary school. Without that it’s usually too hard to catch up later.
Steve Schwartzman
March 11, 2016 at 10:55 PM
Hey Steve .. I’ll pop some pics up on my blog this week for you 😃
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 11, 2016 at 2:13 PM
Okay, I’ll look forward to that.
Steve Schwartzman
March 11, 2016 at 2:58 PM