Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Best moss find of the year so far, Meesia triquetra! Supposed to show up in fens and richer bogs but apparently not in most of the ones I hang out in. Got to a new field site and was IDing some gross, ugly sedges (yuck) when I spotted this next to some open water in some pretty sizable clumps! 030
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Heterogemma laxa from a large Sphagnum fuscum hummock in full sun. What a beauty! I only seem to find it in very well developed Sphagnum and only in the open, never in the shade, similar habitat to Mylia anomala but seemingly less common. 030
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Hoping I might’ve found Cinclidium stygium for the first time. It was showing up along the margins of a springy, seepy fen pool where I’d typically look for Catoscopium nigritum. Crum says “the younger leaves have a dewy-green freshness” and boy was he right, new growth not very stygian! 040
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 11/05/2026Viola selkirkii, maybe my favorite violet? I love the big spur that reminds me of a thumb and the way the top petals pull back like dog ears (dog likeness not to be confused with V. labradorica) 050
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 08/05/2026An Up North specialty while doing fieldwork this week - Pogonatum! Pretty sure it’s P. urnigerum with the “marginal cells of lamellae rounded” per FNA. Not a frequent find in Michigan! 1100
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 22/04/2026Calypogeia sphagnicola, found snuggled in deep in some Sphagnum fuscum hummocks! 0172
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Bought a used Olympus BH2 from a guy down the road for a hundred bucks and it’s in amazing shape! I guess the spirit of Howard Crum wanted me to have a great upcoming field season! 040
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Was looking at some stuff about Sphagnum expert Kjell Ivar Flatberg and saw something extraordinary. The patterns on his hat looked…familiar, they’re Sphagnum leaf cells! 3203
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 13/10/2025Fuscocephaloziopsis that I found after dropping my phone in the bog. Phones seem to really like finding wet hollows on the bog mat, mine is a magnet for Odontoschisma fluitans, Blepharostoma trichophyllum, and Fuscocephaloziopsis. 1100
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 04/09/2025I took a trip last week to attend a Sphagnum workshop hosted by the Botanical Club of Wisconsin. It was fantastic to learn from Dr. Jon Shaw and we had tons of fun! Our group saw 16 of the 27 species known to occur in the state, not too shabby! 150
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 18/07/2025Malaxis unifolia from a great big gigantic conifer swamp that I seem to get lost in every time 070
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 17/07/2025I made a hen Spruce Grouse very upset today and she tried to fight me, I got away with my life but not my dignity 020
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 03/07/2025A quiet, serene video of a raccoon drinking from a local lake and nothing wild happens 041
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 03/07/2025Someone in public recognized me today from my iNat profile and it reminded me of an old tweet of mine. I never realized that posting plant pictures could gain someone a bit of local notoriety? 080
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 16/06/2025Soil Ruby Lichen (Heppia adglutinata), new to Michigan! Some folks I know have found it in Ontario, CA and some nearby Midwest states but somehow I couldn’t find any documentation of it in the Mitten. Figured I may as well look on the high quality alvars of Drummond Island and there it was! Welcome! 0171
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 16/06/2025After 3 years of searching on and off for Menegazzia terebrata in Michigan, I finally found some!! Well worth the wait and the 8 mile trek through one of the thicker conifer swamps I’ve ever been in! 1355
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 17/04/2025It’s been a good spring for lichens so far. This Heterodermia (maybe H. specioca?) is not uncommon around my area but always seems to pop up unexpectedly. 1132
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 19/02/2025Who’s gonna help me find the (likely extinct) Petoskey Pondsnail this summer? F. Bryant Walker collected 13 snail shells in 1908, wrote a vague label, found them to be a new species, and I don’t know if anyone ever really followed up much. 187
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 05/02/2025Pin lichen from the inner wood of a dead Ash in a swamp. I figure this is likely Mycocalicium subtile but haven’t checked the key because I’m a lazy bum. 070
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 05/02/2025There’s a pin lichen that’s been bothering me for a while, shows up on old growth Red Pine. Easy to spot because the white thallus appears on the margins of the bark plates, making them look wreathed in white. Probably just Mycocalicium subtile but that’d be boring. 050
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 19/01/2025Went to the local marina and got to watch an otter fishing for an hour or so 040
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 15/01/2025Finally got out to see some lichen today. I’m often wrong about this specific group but some features point towards Pertusaria rubefacta, that’d be a new one for me! 070
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 05/01/2025Figured out an easy hack for IDing mosses for other people. Works every time 😎 050
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 01/01/2025Best find of 2024 was way back in June. Some friends and I likely found the first Michigan record of Syntrichia cainii on the beautiful alvars of Drummond Island! Felt great to add a new addition to the flora! 180
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 26/12/2024It always cracks me up to think of this illustrator (Montreuel?) being approached to draw pin lichens for a paper. “So they’re like… a bunch of squiggly little wiggly guys? Who are all hangin’ out together?” Yeah you pretty much nailed it. 161
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 19/12/2024I’ve never had a bobcat climb up on a camera before! Pretty fun to hear the little sniffs! 66714
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 16/12/2024Her: He’s probably out talking to other girls. Me: 040
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 05/12/2024My work let me haul a roadkill deer into the woods to put a trail camera on it. Finally got some good videos of a bobcat who isn't very good at sharing. 031
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 04/12/2024Cetraria (maybe C. arenaria?) under the scope. It’s neat to look at the little white lines on the underside (pseudocyphellae) but I like the cilia “eyelashes” more, even though I’m not sure what their function is. 250
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 03/12/2024Made this to put up in my little office. The Michigan Dune Dart (Copablepharon michiganensis) has been documented only four times ever and seems restricted to high-quality Great Lakes dunes. I probably won’t ever see this extreme rarity but maybe some day! 0112
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 28/11/2024Best lichen find this year was back in April when I documented Dermatocarpon luridum in a small creek near Charlevoix, MI. This species had never been found in the lower peninsula of Michigan before and is nearly 100 miles away from the nearest known location! 0335
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 27/11/2024Lepidozia reptans! The bug people seem to turn their noses up at Leps cuz I guess moths are the big, charismatic “pretty boys” in their field? But I’ve never met a bryology nerd who isn’t excited to see this Lep. So tiny and always shows up in cool spots! 0111
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 26/11/2024Homalia trichomanoides, an easy favorite. I don’t see it particularly often in northern Michigan but apparently it’s fairly common for the European moss people that live in my phone 1130
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Frullania asagrayana is easy to clock because it’s giant, juicy, and red. Not quite an indicator species for quality but it does tend to show up in the nicer cedar swamps around here. I always bump into it when I’m looking for F. selwyniana, which I still haven’t seen. 071
Reposted by Brad Von BlonRafael Medina @bryomedina.bsky.social · 23/11/2024Reposting the moss ID alignment chart from 2020 because why not 2489
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 24/11/2024I’ve loved Carl Sagan since middle school and was delighted to find this handwritten graph online today, hadn’t ever seen it before! www.loc.gov/item/cosmos0... 130
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 23/11/2024I got followed by a lot of really cool professional academic type people and I need all of those beautiful folks to know that, while I do like to study, I’m also just some ecology technician that works for a local land trust and has been known to drink beer in public bathrooms. 010
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 23/11/2024I keep trying to dip into pin lichens and I really enjoy the hunt but sheesh, they’re tiny! My guess for this is Calicium trabinellum but I’d need to do some spore microscopy to confirm (and I don’t know how to do that) 3121
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 21/11/2024Mielichhoferia elongata (used to be M. mielichhoferiana) at its only known site in Michigan. Informally “rediscovered” after a 60 year absence by some pals and I in June 2023. All the old collection labels simply put the location as “Pictured Rocks” but we got lucky and found the right cliff! 040
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 21/11/2024Splachnum ampullaceum in the lower peninsula of Michigan! This was my best find of 2024 and my first time ever seeing this species. It was worth the three years of following every deer trail in every bog I could visit! 050
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 18/11/2024I have to drive a couple hours north to the Upper Peninsula to see any Pogonatum (likely P. dentatum) but gosh it’s pretty 040
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 16/11/2024Not certain what the identity of this moss is (possibly Cratoneuron filicinum) but it’s nice to look at. Found in a cedar swamp in Emmet County, Michigan. I’m terrible at the little carpet mosses. No costa, no teeth, no alar regions! 110
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 14/11/2024Aulacomnium palustre seems to pop up just about anywhere wet around my neck of the woods. Such a pleasant, fuzzy little guy 030
Brad Von Blon @bobcatbrad.bsky.social · 14/11/2024This is supposed to be Odontoschisma fluitans but I dunno the difference between Odontoschisma and Cephalozia 030