This was growing on a tree in the high-altitude cloud forest. My knee-jerk reaction was that it is a liverwort of some sort, but that's in the realm of plants I know next to nothing about. It could be a fungus or a lichen or green rust or a small alien, for all I know. Pic one is a closeup cropped out of Pic two. Confirmation? Denial? Odd alien grex on a tree? Thanks in advance!
This looks to me to be a "jelly lichen" in the genus Collema (or at least in the family Collemataceae). Although members of this group do occur in the northern temperate zone where I am, they are more common in the (sub)tropics. The photobiont is the cyanobacterium Nostoc, which by itself often takes the look of the green/brown blobby bits, and the disks at the top are the fungal apothecia (reproductive bits).
Very cool, thank you! Searching on Collema turns up some lichens that are very similar (and some foliose ones, too. Huh.) Obviously I need to find a fungus and lichen book for South America. Wish me luck!
