Met a cool dude at a lichen conference a few years back who was brave enough to ride in shotgun for me across the great state of Idaho, and he introduced me to to the gorgeous P. rainierensis. This foliose lichen has a loose, ragged-looking thallus with lobes varying in length from 1.5 cm to 20 cm. The upper surface is a pale blue-gray and dimpled to wrinkly in texture. It produces marginal and occasionally laminal lobules and isidia. The lower surface is pale tan to cream, and dotted with pseudocyphellae (pores through the surface to the middle layer of the lichen thallus). P. rainierensis is native to the old growth, temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest of North America. It is rare, and recent reports suggest it is declining. But I am happy to see that lichenologists are working on monitoring it in the wild (and using iNaturalist as one of their tools to do so), and working towards public-private partnerships to protect this awesome dude well into the future. (shout out to my pal Stephen T. Sharrett for his hard work and important contributions leading the way toward a brighter future for this and other imperiled PNW lichens. I wanna be him when I grow up)
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