We had a brief visit by Silke Werth, now of UCLA, and her assistant, Gernot Segelbacher of the Unversity of Freiburg, Dept. Wildlife Ecol & Management in Germany. This was finally my chance to ask an expert about the wonderful Lace Lichen on our oaks.
Silke is studying the phylogeographic pattern of Ramalina menziesii (Lace Lichen) in valley oaks Quercus lobata, blue oaks Q. douglasii, and Oregon oak, Q. garryana. This comparison is the first of its kind for an epiphyte and its hosts. As you may know, this lichen is a combination of a fungus and an algae. The fungus makes spores that can drift from tree to tree, and when it lands it must find an algae to incorporate into its body. If it can’t, it dies. Sometimes the migrating fungus can tap into other lichens and rob a few cells of algae to get started. Other times it just lucks out and finds an algae it can use on the oak. So, we see this odd pattern of Lace Lichen being abundant on some trees but absent on adjacent trees. Determining how this works, and what kinds of algae are incorporated into the lichen will keep her busy. Silke is running around the state, having recently sampled Lace Lichen from Ft. Hunter Liggett, The Indians, Arroyo Seco, and was on her way to Morro Bay, with many stops in between.
Silke is also taking twigs from the host oaks to compare the genetic similarities in oaks on a geopgraphic basis to see where the most highly related oaks co-occur. Whatever she finds will be interesting and may give us an idea of past migration patterns of the lichen and the host oaks. Oaks, are of course, of great concern in Monterey County and California. For more, see the Hastings website’s section on Oak Woodlands.