Thursday, 5 January 2012

Blue lichen?

I’m used to finding things growing on my logs but this is the first time I’ve come across a royal blue growth. Does anyone know what it is?

A Google search took me to a similar looking photo, taken in USA, describing it as blue lichen.

Thanks to my colleague Mandy Marsh at Natur Cymru I now know that this is terana caerulea sometimes called the cobalt crust fungus or velvet blue spread. According to Wikipedia it was chosen as fungus of the year by the German Mycological Society. It can be used for the creation of an antibiotic.
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2 comments:

  1. Leigh5 January 2012 at 17:49

    Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving this link. I've never been able to positively identify mine, and called it blue lichen because it looks like exactly like the green lichen I have growing around the place. I still find it around, and it's just as bright blue as the first as the one I photographed. I'll be interested to know if anyone can recognize it.

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  2. Unknown16 January 2012 at 10:31

    Thanks to my colleague Mandy Marsh at Natur Cymru I now know that this is terana caerulea sometimes called the cobalt crust fungus or velvet blue spread.

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