Enchylium tenax

John was in the area today so of course we went out and did some lichenizing after I finished with work. About a week ago I found an interesting specimen which was probably an Enchylium species along the Caribou. Today’s adventure was to go out and collect some of it to ID it. 

Although the Caribou is a beautiful landscape that seems like it should harbor a variety of rare lichens, I’ve seen surprisingly few species. Although, each time I seem to find one more. One factor that might affect this is that it is incredibly steep for most of the river above the falls - great habitat for lichens, but hard to reach without any good access points. There are a few good finds below the falls.

The falls

The river gorge

Black hawthorn (Crataegus douglasii) is a western disjunct species, similar to thimbleberry but with a much more restricted range along the Great Lakes
State Special Concern Species

Shag-belly stippleback lichen (Dermatocarpon moulinsii)
State Endangered Species

Common chocolate chip lichen (Solorina saccata)
State Special Concern Species

That’s all the rare species I’ve seen on the Caribou. Today we added another species to my growing list, Enchylium tenax. I first saw it while it was raining. Enchylium are famous for swelling to a much larger size when wet. So today it was a little more challenging to find, just black schmutz on a rock. Looking at the lichen and habitat, John thought we might have Enchylium coccophorum, which has only been documented once in the state. But when he looked at spores under the microscope it turned out to be E. tenax. It is a broadly distributed species, but appears to be uncommon here in Minnesota. 

John setting up for the money shots 

Enchylium tenax with a swollen thallus
State Watchlist Species


















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