I walked from Chantry Flats to Mt. Wilson via the Upper Winter Creek Trail and Toll Road, then returned via the Rim Trail and Devore/Sturtevant. All told it was maybe 18 miles, and about 2500' elevation change, from Sturtevant at about 3500' to Mt. Wilson a few hundred shy of 6000'. The entire trail up was on the ocean-side, mostly E and N slopes, ending on S slopes. The Rim Trail is nearly entirely in the lea of the E-W ridge. I collected almost nothing on the trail down from Newcomb Pass.
The species list below should represent a fair collection of all but the rarest foliose, fruticose, and squamulose lichens along the trail: perhaps as much as 75% of the macrolichen species within a few feet of the trail, but I doubt even as much as half the species present on the mountain as a whole. However, it should only be considered a cursory sampling of the commonest or most interesting crustose species, especially the saxicolous species, as I relied entirely upon collecting specimens on fragments that flaked off of the rocks naturally.
Where possible I stepped off the trail to collect, however it is clear that the dust from the trail has significantly enriched the lichen communities on the base of trunks immediately adjacent the trail, both above and below. So I was not always able to find equivalent specimens off the trail.
Vouchered specimens are kept for each of the species listed. In almost all cases the specimens are fragments, just enough to provide confident identification. At some later date each taxon will be linked into my notes, but for now that functionality doesn't exist on the website.
I found 35 macrolichen species:
| Candelaria concolor | bark, occ wood/rock | 3000-6000' | abundant |
| Cladonia hammeri | moss/rock | 3000-5000' | common |
| Cladonia subradiata | moss/rock | 3000-4000' | |
| Dermatocarpon americanum | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Flavopunctelia flaventior | moss/rock | 3000-4000' | |
| Hypocenomyce scalaris | pseudotsuga bark | 4000-6000' | abundant |
| Hypocenomyce sierrae | moss | 5000-6000' | |
| Leptochidium albociliatum | moss/rock | 4000-5000' | |
| Letharia columbiana | conifer bark/wood | 5000-6000' | |
| Letharia vulpina | pseudotsuga bark, occ wood | 4000-6000' | common |
| Melanelia glabra | oak bark, occ granite | 4000-5000' | frequent |
| Parmelia saxatilis | granite | 4000-5000' | |
| Parmelia sulcata | granite | 4000-5000' | |
| Parmelina quercina | oak bark, occ granite | 4000-5000' | frequent |
| Physcia adscendens | granite | 4000-5000' | |
| Physcia biziana | granite, occ wood | 4000-6000' | frequent |
| Physcia caesia | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Physcia tenellula | oak bark and granite | 4000-6000' | frequent |
| Physcia tribacia | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Physciella chloantha | oak bark | 3000-5000' | |
| Physconia americana | oak bark | 4000-5000' | frequent |
| Physconia californica | oak bark | 4000-5000' | frequent |
| Physconia enteroxantha | oak bark | 4000-6000' | |
| Physconia isidiigera | oak bark and granite | 3000-6000' | common |
| Physconia perisidiosa | oak bark | 4000-6000' | frequent |
| Platismatia glauca | pseudotsuga bark | 4000-5000' | |
| Rhizoplaca melanophthalma | granite | 5000-6000' | frequent |
| Umbilicaria phaea | granite | 4000-6000' | common |
| Xanthomendoza fallax | oak bark | 5000-6000' | |
| Xanthomendoza fulva | oak bark | 5000-6000' | |
| Xanthoparmelia californica | granite | 3000-4000' | |
| Xanthoparmelia coloradoensis | granite | 4000-5000' | |
| Xanthoparmelia lineola | granite | 3000-4000' | |
| Xanthoparmelia mexicana | granite | 3000-4000' | |
| Xanthoparmelia subdecipiens | granite | 5000-6000' |
I found 15 crustose species:
| Buellia sp.? | oak bark | 3000-4000' | |
| Caloplaca ignea? | cement | 5000-6000' | |
| Candelariella vitellina | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Chrysothrix candelaris? | oak bark, occ granite | 3000-6000' | common |
| Lecanora cenisia | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Lecanora hagenii | oak bark | 5000-6000' | |
| Lecanora mellea | granite | 4000-5000' | |
| Lecanora muralis muralis | granite | 4000-6000' | common |
| Lecidea mannii | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Lepraria lobificans? | granite, occ oak bark | 3000-6000' | common |
| Lepraria diffusa | moss | 5000-6000' | |
| Ochrolechia subpallescens | oak bark | 4000-6000' | common |
| Rhizocarpon disporum? | granite | 5000-6000' | |
| Rhizocarpon geographicum | granite | 5000-6000' | common |
| Rinodina herrei | oak bark | 4000-5000' |
Here I compare this partial flora on Mt. Wilson with the partial flora given me by Kerry Knudson for San Jacinto Wilderness. It's perhaps not a particularly instructive comparison, as the latter is significantly higher in elevation, but I was interested in it, nonetheless, because I wanted to back up quantitatively the subjective observation I made a few weeks ago that the macrolichen community was rather poor on San Jacinto.
| species | genera | |
|---|---|---|
| Mt. Wilson | 35 | 18 |
| San Jacinto | 26 | 15 |
| overlap | 8 | 11 |
| total | 53 | 22 |
And here is a breakdown of number of genera/species by distance from trailhead, and by elevation.
| species | genera | |
|---|---|---|
| within 3 mi | 10 | 7 |
| within 6 mi | 23 | 14 |
| total | 35 | 18 |
| species | genera | |
|---|---|---|
| 3000-4000' | 9 | 6 |
| 4000-5000' | 21 | 14 |
| 5000-6000' | 18 | 10 |
| total | 35 | 18 |
Note: The elevation profile above is misleading because the majority of the trail I followed was between 4000-5000', and I stopped collecting specimens I already had on the way down, so 3000-4000' and 5000-6000' are both underrepresented compared to 4000-5000'.
The relative dearth of species close to the trailhead, however, is obvious to the casual observer. Past 4 or 5 miles (approximately above 4500', or about halfway up to the Toll Road) the richness of the macrolichen community starts to plateau. The bases of most oaks next to the trail have a majority coverage beyond this point, and the oaks on the Rim Trail do not show significantly greater coverage. Letharia, however, continued to increase noticeably in abundance all the way to the top of the mountain. [NOTE]
The following three tables show number of species of each genus present on Mt. Wilson and San Jacinto, respectively.
Genera present in both:
| Mt. Wilson | San Jacinto | |
|---|---|---|
| Dermatocarpon | 1 | 1 |
| Hypocenomyce | 2 | 1 |
| Letharia | 2 | 1 |
| Melanelia | 1 | 3 |
| Parmelia | 2 | 1 |
| Physcia | 5 | 2 |
| Physconia | 5 | 2 |
| Rhizoplaca | 1 | 1 |
| Umbilicaria | 1 | 3 |
| Xanthomendoza | 2 | 3 |
| Xanthoparmelia | 5 | 3 |
Genera present only on Mt. Wilson:
| Mt. Wilson | San Jacinto | |
|---|---|---|
| Candelaria | 1 | 0 |
| Cladonia | 2 | 0 |
| Flavopunctelia | 1 | 0 |
| Leptochidium | 1 | 0 |
| Parmelina | 1 | 0 |
| Physciella | 1 | 0 |
| Platismatia | 1 | 0 |
Genera present only on San Jacinto:
| Mt. Wilson | San Jacinto | |
|---|---|---|
| Nodobryoria | 0 | 1 |
| Phaeophyscia | 0 | 2 |
| Psora | 0 | 1 |
| Xanthoria | 0 | 1 |