Now we begin to see lichens.

February 26.

The east side of Deep Cut nearly dry; sand has ceased flowing; west side just beginning. 

Now we begin to see the Cladonia rangiferina ("reindeer moss") in the dry pastures.

Observe for the first time on and about Bear Hill in Lincoln the "greenish straw-colored" Parmelia conspersa, a very handsome and memorable lichen, which every child has admired. I love to find it where the rocks will split into their laminae so that I can easily carry away a specimen.

The low hills in the northeast beyond Bedford, seen from Bear Hill about 4.30 P. M., were remarkably dark blue, much more blue than the mountains in the northwest. The sky was in great part concealed by white clouds. Had this blue the same cause with the blue in the crevices of the snow? 


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 26, 1852

Now we begin to see the Cladonia rangiferina.  See November 30, 1853 ("Now, first since spring, I take notice of the cladonia lichens, which the cool fall rains appear to have started."); December 7, 1853 ("I observe the beds of greenish cladonia lichens."); February 5, 1860 ("I see where crows have pecked the tufts of cladonia lichens which peep out of the snow."); March 12, 1859 (" It is a very barren, exhausted soil, where the cladonia lichens abound . . . the very visible green of the cladonias thirty rods off, and the rich brown fringes where the broken sod hung over the edge of the sand-bank . . . methinks these terrestrial lichens were never more fair and prominent. On some knolls these vivid and rampant lichens as it were dwarf the oaks."); March 14, 1857 ("Now each hill is a dry moss-bed, of various species of cladonia.");  June 25, 1852 ("The light, dry cladonia lichens on the brows of hills reflect the moonlight well, looking like rocks.")

The "greenish straw-colored" Parmelia conspersa, a very handsome and memorable lichen.  See January 26, 1852 ("The beauty of lichens, with their scalloped leaves, the small attractive fields, the crinkled edge! I could study a single piece of bark for hour."); February 6, 1852 ("Near the C. Miles house there are some remarkably yellow lichens (parmelias?) on the rails, – ever as if the sun were about to shine forth clearly . . . Found three or four parmelias caperata) in fruit on a white oak on the high river-bank between Tarbell's and Harrington’s"); March 18, 1852 ("There is more rain than snow now falling, and the lichens, especially the Parmelia conspersa, appear to be full of fresh fruit, though they are nearly buried in snow."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Lichens and the lichenst .

Had this blue the same cause with the blue in the crevices of the snow? See January 9, 1852 ("The sky shut out by snow-clouds . . . I see little azures, little heavens, in the crannies and crevices . . . Apparently the snow absorbs the other rays and reflects the blue"); January 14, 1852 ("There is no blueness in the ruts and crevices in the snow to-day. What kind of atmosphere does this require? . . . It is one of the most interesting phenomena of the winter."); January 18, 1852 ("To-day, again, I see some of the blue in the crevices of the snow. Perhaps the snow in the air, as well as on the ground, takes up the white rays and reflects the blue."); January 26, 1852 ("To-day I see . . . a slight blueness in the chinks, it being cloudy and melting.")

The low hills in the northeast . . . were remarkably dark blue. Compare  January 16, 1860 ("The hills eight or ten miles west are white, but the mountains thirty miles off are blue, though both may be equally white at the same distance."); November 13, 1851("The mountains are of an uncommonly dark blue to-day. Perhaps this is owing . . . to the greater clearness of the atmosphere, which brings them nearer"); March 31, 1853 ("When the air is a little hazy, the mountains are particularly dark blue.'); August 25, 1853 ("Seen through this lower stratum, the mountain is a very dark blue."); September 27, 1853 ("From our native hills we look out easily to the far blue mountains.")

We begin to see 

the Cladonia lichen 

in the dry pastures.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Now we begin to see lichens.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau 

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025