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Lobaria oregana, or "lettuce lichen", on Douglas-fir bark, Oregon Cascades. This lichen enriches soil in the old-growth coniferous forests of the Northwest because it containes nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria and because it can attain a high biomass in its most favored forest stands. It comes back very slowly in re-growth forests after logging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Photograph copyright Stephen/Sylvia Sharnoff