Hypogymnia duplicata

Family / Families: Parmeliaceae
Scientific Name(s): Hypogymnia duplicata (Ach.) Rass.
Location(s): Stegosaurus Butte, Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington, USA
Entry Author(s): Daniel Mosquin
Copyright Holder(s): wanderflechten@Flickr aka Richard Droker
Image Permissions: Please contact the copyright holder for permission to use.
Photographer(s) Appreciation: A thank you once again to Richard Droker (aka wanderflechten@Flickr) for sharing a lichen photograph, this time of Hypogymnia duplicata. Always appreciative of the lichen photos!
Tags: Lichen, Parmeliaceae, USA, via Flickr, Washington

Tickertape bone lichen

Some sites use duplicate tube lichen as a common name for this composite organism, but I prefer tickertape bone lichen. As Richard (the photographer) notes, this a popular species in lichen charades–either common name will do.

Hypogymnia duplicata is endemic to rainforests of western North America. It primarily occurs in the coastal rainforests of Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, but there are documented occurrences in the coastal rainforests of Oregon and the inland rainforests of British Columbia and Idaho (see interactive map via Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria). Its relatively few occurrences in Oregon have resulted in it being listed as a sensitive species / insufficient data species in some of the state’s conservation rankings; Conservation Assessments for 5 species of Lichens (PDF) contains the details on the conservation status, as well as a morphological description of the lichen and more specifics on habitat & distribution, i.e.,

Hypogymnia duplicata occurs as an epiphyte on mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), western hemlock (T. heterophylla), Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis), subalpine fir (A. lasiocarpa) , and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in old-growth forests of the western Cascades, Olympics, and Oregon Coast Range between 330 m and 1660 m (1100-5450 ft) elevation. This lichen is primarily found in maritime, high precipitation (100 – 110 in/yr) old-growth conifer forests west of the Cascade crest in Washington; it is also found in mountain hemlock/Pacific silver fir forests in the mesic to moist Alaska Huckleberry (Vaccinium alaskaense) plant associations

and

Occasionally, atypical habitat conditions are documented for this species. These habitats are described as forests on a lava flow and a lahar in northwestern Washington, on a snag in a bog in the Oregon Coast Range, and on moss-covered basalt outcrops on a windswept ridge of Saddle Mountain in Oregon.

Additional images of Hypogymnia duplicata are available via another noted lichen photographer, Stephen Sharnoff. I hope to photograph it this summer at Botany BC.