Algae, Lichens, and Mosses...

These three families of organisms all live in the chaparral, and they either disappear or are dormant anytime the chaparral is dry. The lichen (which are fungus and a symbiote, either an algae or a cyanobacterium) mostly shrivel and change color (often to black) when it's dry. The algae completely disappears. The mosses shrivel and turn black or a very dark brown. The bright, vigorous greens you see in these photos only appears for a short while – a few weeks at most – during and just after our rains.

In the lower left of the photo at right, you can see a bright green blob of algae, growing with great enthusiasm in a trickle of water from a seep just a few feet above it. Just to its right is a rich green moss, growing from sopping wet soil watered by that same seep. If I come back to this same spot in a couple of weeks, most likely there will be little sign that either of them ever existed.

At right is a fine example of the most common lichen in this area. It grows prolifically on the exposed granite of our hills. Most of the year, its colors are muted and its structure is dry and brittle. Now those lichens are leathery and strong, and sometimes I think I can actually see them growing. A time-lapse series of one of these would be interesting to watch...

For someone like me, used to the dehydrated appearance of the chaparral most times, these few weeks of wetness are full of beauty and surprises. This is especially true, I suppose, in the first wet year after a prolonged drought...

Here are a few more photos of these short-lived jewels: