moss and lichens

there are seventeen trees in my back yard two firs among them ( as well as two firs on the south side fo the house ) which serve as sinks for some ( not nearly all ) of the carbon emissions i produce...if i had room there would be more firs out there, however that is not possible...recently i have been reading about the ability of mosses and lichens to sequester carbon and so i went out to look around...

among the mulberries and maples out back there are two gigantic locust trees...

and they are home to a vaiety of mosses and lichens...

the maples back there seem to be only hospitable to lichens since i did not find an moss i could identify...

conversely the black walnut seems exempt as a host...

however the moss and lichens on the dead wood out there...

as well as the moss on the ground...

and lichens on stones make up for the habitat denial...the back yard is a shady place when in leaf and so moss and lichen friendly...i wasn't expecting to find as much in the sunnier front yard...seems i was mistaken in that...

it is a fact that the maples out by the street have a mush sparser population of mosses and lichens than those in the back...

however the ground along the north side of the yard, from the bushes that border the neighboring driveway back to the ramp bed is alive with mosses...including the drive itself...so...pleasingly, there are more carbon offsets in my yard than i had imagined...it will take some serious calculation to discern how much of the carbon i produce these mosses and the combination of fungus and algae that make up lichens will sink and i doubt i can come up with an exact figure...which won't stop me from trying to ballpark it...more later.

notable sighting

the borage was looking decidedly unhappy so i dragged out a garden hose to douse it...

when i encountered a honeybee on the blooms...unremarkable except for the fact that i haven't seen a honeybee in my yard in a couple of years...that does not mean there haven't been any visiting, simply that, until a few minutes ago, i had not seen one in quite a while...we will talk about teosinte as the seeds come in.

apis et ablata est

i have seen pollinators this spring...however they have mostly been on small berry blooms around the yard...

there is a wealth of other, larger flowers around the yard and the temperature has consistently been above fifty-five degrees (fahrenheit)...however i have sen exactly one honeybee this year...this is disturbing in and of itself...

however there is even more troublesome sign...the hawthorn tree in the front yard has begun to bloom and it is signaling this by emitting a very strong fragrance...it is the second week of june and last year this tree was crawling with honey bees ( as it was the year before )...this year what i am seeing is...

branches of blooms and blooms to be devoid of anything but...

you guessed it, small solitary bees...i can hope this turns around in the next few days ( weeks will be too late ) the small pollinators will do their best to cover the tree ( and it will provide ample resources for them )...i have to wonder how this will impact the number of "berries" and how that will impact the birds that consume them next winter...

if it is a difficult winter and the robins come out of the wood to compete with the jays for the berries they may be disappointed...and there may not be any shriveled berried from this season left over next june.