Dusk in the Arboretum

[urbpan]

Rebecca climbed a crabapple tree.



I looked at some lichen.





We climbed the big hill,



and the sky was pretty.



I like that the trees wear name tags here. This is a Japanese honey locust.



There's some green where the snow has melted--notoriously invasive garlic mustard and ubiquitous dandelion.



There were tons of winter moths, apparently a soon-to-be notorious invasive.



Dusk continued to fall, until only sihouettes remained, like this pretty Japanese larch.



We caught a glimpse of Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Arboretum with a Thousand Young, but somehow escaped with our sanity.

Comments

[burning-brain.livejournal.com]

Nice work! I loves the New England sunsets.

[rinalia.livejournal.com]

Great photos! I love the last one - very surreal! :)

[gwodder.livejournal.com]

is that the J.P. Arboretum?

[apathy.livejournal.com]

wow i've never seen lichen.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

We've had some good ones this week!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I should have identified it for non-Bostonians:

It's the Arnold Arboretum, run by Harvard and located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborboods of Boston.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Lichen is one of those amazing things in nature that, once you notice it, is everywhere. A few years ago I became aware of it and now it's a favorite thing for my wife (cottonmanifesto, go look at her incredible pictures, I beg of you, she puts me to shame) and I to observe when we go out.

It comes in lots of different shapes and colors, but the most interesting features are very small. Here on the east coast we have mostly crusty stuff that grows on rocks and trees, but in wetter places (like the Northwest coast) they have an unbelievable profusion of fluffy, mossy lichens. Some people would like California to recognize a state lichen.

I can't speak for Los Angeles, because I've never been, but lichens tend to be sensitive to air pollution, so they may be more elusive in your area.