The Purpose of This Blog

     Somewhere in the course of events in studying art, religion, Japanese, and occupational therapy, I developed an intense and abiding interest in plants, fungi, and lichens. In other words, I have become fascinated with anything that grows while staying put. In particular, the small, the unusual, and the rare species that carpet the mountains and plains of Colorado and go largely unnoticed by passers-by as they hike, climb, and play. Colorado's numerous life zones, moderated by vast differences in rainfall and elevation, mean that it hosts an impressively diverse population of growing things. 

     

Cladonia pyxidata, the fairy cup lichen, growing on the forest floor near Mt. Evans.

     I have watched the sides of trails with growing interest, learning that a few steps towards or away from a water source or up or down a slope can move me completely from one ecological zone to another. Each zone has its accompanying blanket of varied flora, much of it astonishingly beautiful but also minuscule. I have spent many happy hours in the mountains looking at theses species through a camera lens and even more time identifying and chronicling them in journals.

Unidentified Mycena species growing in moss.

     However, I also learned that many of my friends and family, while they find these things interesting in passing, do not share my intensity of interest in any of these subjects. Moreover, group hikes only have so much patience for the guy with the camera to take one more macro shot of a mossy embankment. Put another way:

     I added marijuana as a point of reference for the plant that the most people in Colorado can relate to, and also to make a point that this blog will not be about pot despite my location. This blog will also not be any kind of consistent or coherent guide to species, although I will post identifications when they are relevant. I want this blog to serve as a curiosity for people who want to know more about Colorado flora and fungi, as well as an access point for people who actually like lichens, mushrooms, wildflowers, and eventually, bryophytes, to come and bask in a fellow amateur's enthusiasm. I'm also hoping that the vastness of the internet will bring more enthusiasts here than I have had the chance to meet in real life (see graph). I want to post my pictures of the small, weird, beautiful, confusing, and eminently fascinating world that exists between about 0 and 10 cm in height. I want to geek out intensely about this passion of mine, and I hope that some readers will appreciate the knowledge or the images that I post here.