Lichens of Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area , a nature reserve located in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Contents
- The Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area
- Lichenology at Soldiers Delight NEA
- Listings
- See also
- External links
- References
Lichens of Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area , a nature reserve located in Baltimore County, Maryland.
The Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area (Soldiers Delight NEA) is an environmentally sensitive area consisting of 1,900 acres (770 ha) of land, and a visitor center, that is owned by the state of Maryland and managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The land consists of both serpentine barren and upland forest habitats.
Chromite was mined at Soldiers Delight NEA until 1860 by Isaac Tyson, and some of the old mine shafts are still present. [1] [2] Four marked trails transverse the area and are a favorite hiking place for both humans and dogs. [3] [4]
The most distinctive feature about Soldiers Delight NEA is the number of rare and endangered plants that occur on the serpentine barrens, including some of the wildflowers of Soldiers Delight. These endangered species include the sandplain gerardia, serpentine aster, flameflower, and fringed gentian. [5]
Lichenology began at the Soldiers Delight NEA in 1976, when Allen C. Skorepa, Arnold Norden , and Donald Windler were awarded a grant from the Power Plant Siting Program of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to survey the lichens of Maryland. They surveyed the lichens from many areas throughout the state; one of which was Soldiers Delight. In 1977, they published their results and reported one location for each species of lichen that they identified. Thus, while they may have collected a particular species from numerous places they documented only one. So while they found numerous species of lichens at Soldiers Delight, only a few got recorded in their publication.
Dr. Elmer G. Worthley of Baltimore County also had an interest in lichens and collected throughout Maryland and New England, but the Soldiers Delight Area was one of his favorite places.
All of the lichens collected by Skorepa, Norden, and Windler were deposited in the herbarium at Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland. And all of the lichens in Elmer Worthley's herbarium were sent to the Lichen Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden in 2001.
The following list of lichen species found at Soldiers Delight is based upon these three sources, with acronyms used below:
A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. Lichens are important actors in nutrient cycling and act as producers which many higher trophic feeders feed on, such as reindeer, gastropods, nematodes, mites, and springtails. Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in many colors, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not plants. They may have tiny, leafless branches (fruticose); flat leaf-like structures (foliose); grow crust-like, adhering tightly to a surface (substrate) like a thick coat of paint (crustose); have a powder-like appearance (leprose); or other growth forms.
Cladonia rangiferina, also known as reindeer cup lichen, reindeer lichen or grey reindeer lichen, is a light-colored fruticose, cup lichen species in the family Cladoniaceae. It grows in both hot and cold climates in well-drained, open environments. Found primarily in areas of alpine tundra, it is extremely cold-hardy.
The Cladoniaceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the order Lecanorales. It is one of the largest families of lichen-forming fungi, with about 560 species distributed amongst 17 genera. The reindeer moss and cup lichens (Cladonia) belong to this family. The latter genus, which comprises about 500 species, forms a major part of the diet of large mammals in taiga and tundra ecosystems. Many Cladoniaceae lichens grow on soil, but other can use decaying wood, tree trunks, and, in a few instances, rocks as their substrate. They grow in places with high humidity, and cannot tolerate aridity.
The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is diverse and complex. The combination of climate, topography, moisture, and soils influences the distribution of ecological communities across an elevation gradient from 500 to 14,500 feet. Biotic zones range from scrub and chaparral communities at lower elevations, to subalpine forests and alpine meadows at the higher elevations. Particular ecoregions that follow elevation contours are often described as a series of belts that follow the length of the Sierra Nevada. There are many hiking trails, paved and unpaved roads, and vast public lands in the Sierra Nevada for exploring the many different biomes and ecosystems.
Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially antigorite, lizardite, and chrysotile or white asbestos, all of which are commonly found in ultramafic rocks. The term "serpentine" is commonly used to refer to both the soil type and the mineral group which forms its parent materials.
Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area is a nature reserve near Owings Mills in western Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S. The site is designated both as a Maryland Wildland and as a Natural Environment Area and is part of the Maryland Wildlands Preservation System. The site's protected status is due to the presence of serpentine soil and over 39 rare, threatened, or endangered plant species along with rare insects, rocks and minerals.
Minnekhada Regional Park is a natural park situated in northeast Coquitlam, British Columbia, alongside Pitt-Addington Marsh and the Pitt River. It is over 200 hectares in size and features trails, rock knolls, abundant trees, birds, and other wildlife. At the centre of the park is the main marsh area, divided into upper and lower sections, divided by a dike and a small footbridge.
Cladonia furcata or the many-forked cup lichen is a species of cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It has an intermediate to tolerant air pollution sensitivity. Extracts of this species have been shown to kill leukemia cells in vitro, and may have possible value in the treatment of cancer.
Pine Hill Ecological Reserve is a nature reserve of 403 acres (1.63 km2) located due east of Folsom Lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in El Dorado County, California. The reserve was established in 1979, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Cladonia perforata is a rare species of lichen known as Florida perforate cladonia and Florida perforate reindeer lichen. It is endemic to the state of Florida in the United States, where it is known from 16 populations in four widely separated areas of the state. It is native to a very specific type of Florida scrub habitat which is increasingly rare and patchy due to habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation. In 1993 this was the first species of lichen to be federally listed as an endangered species of the United States.
Cladonia stellaris or the star-tipped cup lichen is an ecologically important species of cup lichen that forms continuous mats over large areas of the ground in boreal and arctic regions around the circumpolar north. The species is a preferred food source of reindeer and caribou during the winter months, and it has an important role in regulating nutrient cycling and soil microbiological communities. Like many other lichens, Cladonia stellaris is used by humans directly for its chemical properties, as many of the secondary metabolites are antimicrobial, but it also has the unique distinction of being harvested and sold as 'fake trees' for model train displays. It is also used as a sound absorber in interior design. The fungal portion of Cladonia stellaris, known as a mycobiont, protects the lichen from lichenivores, superfluous solar radiation, and other kinds of stressors in their ecosystem.
Vermilacinia ceruchoides is a fruticose lichen found on rock faces of cliffs or boulders, sometimes growing among mosses, usually near the ocean, ranging in distribution from Marin County, California to San Vicente on the northern peninsula of Baja California, and in the Channel Islands.
Niebla brachyura is a rare fruticose lichen that grows along the Pacific Coast of North America in the fog regions of the northern peninsula of Baja California in the Northern Vizcaíno Desert. The epithet, brachyura, is in regard to the species resembling a crab lying on its back with its leg appendages pointing up.
Dubakella soil series is the name given to a reddish-brown stony loam soil which has developed on ultramafic rock containing magnesium minerals such as serpentine or asbestos. This soil occurs from southwestern Oregon south to the Coast Ranges of California near Healdsburg, and it also is found in the Sierra Nevada mountains and foothills.
Niebla josecuervoi is a fruticose lichen that grows on rock, stony soil and sand along the Pacific Coast of northern Baja California from near Misión San Vicente Ferrer to Punta Santa Rosalilillita. The epithet, josecuervoi is in honor of a field assistant, “Jose Cuervo”.
Niebla podetiaforma is a fruticose lichen that grows frequently on small stones in fog regions along the Pacific Coast of Baja California from San Vicente Canyon to Morro Santo Domingo. The epithet, podetiaforma is in reference to a primary inflated branch of the thallus that resembles a podetium, a common feature in the lichen genus Cladonia.