What in the Woods Is That?

Play our biweekly guessing game!

Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors. The forests, fields, and streams of our region are full of mystery, and if you stop and look closely, you’ll see all sorts of oddities.

Below find a picture of one such woodlands curio. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win a Northern Woodlands woodpecker magnet designed by artist Liz Wahid. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear when the next column is posted and in our newsletter (sign up here!).

Old Rusty

This long rusty mark was found on a black cherry near our office in Corinth, Vermont. What caused it?

Answer

An alga (Trentepholia sp.). Trentepohlia is usually part of a lichen, but in this photo it’s “free living” - not associated with a fungus to make a lichen. A lichen is a combination of a fungus (the mycobiont) and an alga or sometimes blue-green bacteria (the photobiont). Trentepohlia is a green alga but it looks red (or yellow or orange) because the chlorophyll is masked by carotenoid pigments.

We thought for sure we’d get to keep our book this time around. But no. We had a number of correct guesses, proving once again that it’s very hard to stump our readers.

This week’s contest winner was Dave Houston