Im just a curious student from Washington and I was wondering what this fungi was. . Quick research leads me to be a birds nest type, but I hadnt seen any green ones.
Could this be a liverwort? The lower part of the picture looks more like a chlorophyll-producing plant body than a fungus. Rob
Not a fungus or liverwort. It's a lichen, and I'm fairly convinced it is Rhizoplaca melanophthalma or green rock-posy (you haven't mentioned the substrate you found it in, which is very helpful in identifying fungi, mosses, lichens, liverworts...). There are a number of images for comparison on this Norwegian site: photo gallery of lichens The body of the lichen is described in Lichens of North America as being yellowish-green to dark yellow, often greenish-black at the margins. The fact that it is wet generally stimulates whatever algae are in the fungus, so the colour tends to shift to being greener. The thalli (or cups) are described in colour from the Lichens of North America as varying in colour from pale yellow-brown through greenish to black, so a lot of variation there as well. An interesting tidbit about this lichen is that it is so morphologically variable it can appear as either a crust lichen or a spherical mass that will roll over soil.
This lichen started growing on our wood deck rather quickly. I dont remember what type of wood the deck is. Since I've been out to the deck quite frequently, I'm pretty sure this grew within 40-60 hours. It is in the middle of the deck and is quite exposed. It also has been raining the past couple of days. I looked through the Norwegian site and I'm going to give an amatuer guess that its Xanthoria parietina. Picture Here. This lichen grows on marble and trees. My favorite part is the green color which must be from the wet environment as Daniel said earlier.
Ah, if it grew within 40-60 hours, I'm wrong then. No lichen in the world would grow to that size that fast. Only things that could do that (that this might be) are fungi and slime molds (and it's not a slime mold). Back to square one, if you're certain about that fact (plus the lichen I mentioned grows on rocks - I thought you'd collected it then placed it on the wood to take a pic).
Yeah, I'm with you on that one Daniel. Apart from the shade of green, those Xanthoria pics are identical, right down to the leafy looking leading edge. So unless there is an extremely fast growing form of this, I can't come up with an explanation for this apparent incongruity.
Definitely a lichen, but I'm not sure it's either the Rhizoplaca melanophthalma or the Xanthoria... Any chance it fell onto the deck, or is it firmly attached? I agree with Daniel, it couldn't have grown that fast! Rhizoplaca, by the way, would be attached at a single point (umbilicus), Xanthoria more widely. Rhizoplacas are relatively easy to separate from substrate, which as Daniel says, is rock. What a puzzle... Color is such an issue-- maybe they both get this green in your wet climate, but this looks nothing like what we would see in Colorado, even if it did rain! What if you dried it out? (or maybe a small piece if it is attached) That will give you "true" color, per the books.
The first time I looked at the lichen i thought it grew out of a crack in the wooden deck. I didn't bother touching it becuase it looked fragile and gooey. After reading that it couldnt have grown that fast, i realized it was not fixed to the wooden deck. It must have flown onto the deck. It was pale white underneath. Sorry for the confusion.
Yes. I should have commented that I have never seen any fungus, nor any slime mold at any of their various growth stages, that looks even remotely like this. I'm confident that the fungi can be ruled out.
