Above: Dr. Jesse Miller points to a tiny bit of lichen that turned out to be Tephromela pacifica, a first-time sighting in California. Photo: Jesse E. D. Miller (CC-BY-NC)

What’s in a humble stick? If you look closely, there's a lot you might find. First, the one pictured above comes from Mt. Tamalpais’ unique Sargent cypress forest, which thrives in places that most plants don’t. It’s also the home of Tephromela pacifica, a lichen seen for the first time in the state of California (per iNaturalist data) during our November bioblitz!

About 40 curious participants joined the two-day “Lichen & Friends” event to learn from guest expert Dr. Jesse Miller and to look for lichens in the Rock Spring area of Mt. Tamalpais. This part of the mountain is renowned for its rich biodiversity, and it’s undergoing treatment as part of One Tam’s Marin Regional Forest Health Strategy. Previous bioblitzes at Rock Spring have found unique fungus species following prescribed burns, an important tool of forest stewardship. So, we were eager to see which kinds of lichens were clinging to rocks or hanging from trees—any stick we picked up could house a treasure!

Why look for lichens? They play important roles in our ecosystems and are also a bellwether for the effects of climate change. As a partnership between a fungus and an alga, they take many interesting forms and live a unique life cycle. We also don’t know very much about the lichens in our midst—we will continue to survey key areas of the Mt. Tam region in future bioblitzes, particularly forests, to learn more about which lichens are present and their relationships within our forests.

It will take more time to fully identify all the bioblitz finds, but we’re excited by this first-ever sighting. You can see more on iNaturalist. Community science programs like our bioblitzes are an important way to increase our collective knowledge of local biodiversity—thanks to all who participated!