LICHEN AND FUNGI

Despite its lively color, this butterfly you see on the tree trunk is dead. I found its lifeless body at the floor of my porch and I decided to photograph this beautiful insect to the side of the lichens.

"Lichens are a successful alliance between a fungus and an alga. Each doing what it does best, and thriving as a result of a natural cooperation. They live as one organism, both inhabiting the same body. "

"Many lichens are very sensitive to pollution in the air. When there are too many harmful things in the air, lichens die. If you live where there are many lichens it probably means the air is clean. But, if there are only a few lichens in your neighborhood, the air you are breathing is probably clogged with automobile fumes or industrial wastes."

Lichens are capable of inhabiting several ecosystems, due to their versatility, despite of the environmental conditions. They can live on rocks, ground, rind of trees, trunks and wood. Lichens are very good bio-indicators to survey the air pollution.

I think this organism above is Fungi, not Lichen. Fungi help to recycle fallen timber and organic debris. Is it Rainbow Fungi or Coral Fungi? Perhaps someone can help me with this doubt!

"Humans have learned to use lichens in many useful ways. People eat lichens (careful a few are poisonous, so don't experiment without expert help). Drug companies make antibiotics from lichen substances. One of the most creative things people do with lichens is make dyes to color wool. "

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All photos were taken by me in my garden

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Update 1: Dyeing with Lichens & Mushrooms: Human beings have been used lichens for over 4,000 years in dyeing. The Romans produced a purple dye from lichens for their togas. In Scotland the traditional kilts were dyed from lichen extracts while native American Indians use lichen dyes for colour in their rugs. You can see this issue here , here and here .

Update 2: My friend Gisela, from Guildwood Village on The Lake kindly solve my doubt about Lichen and Fungi. As you can see here, "my" Fungi is Coral Fungi. If you want to see another beautiful photos of Fungi, Lichen and Mushroom, click on those Gisela's post: here, here, here, here, here and here. Thank you so much Gisela!

"BARBATIMÃO": BEAUTIFUL TREE IN MY YARD

I love so much all species of trees! Above you see the tree known as "Barbatimão" , Stryphnodendron adstringens, from Leguminosae-Mimosoideae Family. This beautiful and luxuriant tree is a native tree to Brazil's cerrado vegetation. I have three of them in my yard.





"The Brazilian cerrado (savanna) bioma covers 2 million km² representing 23% of the area of the country (the same size as Western Europe). It is an ancient biome with rich biodiversity, estimated at 160.000 species of plants, fungi and animals. There are about 800 species of trees and large shrubs in the savanna vegetation."

"Cerrado é um domínio fitogeográfico do tipo savana que ocorre no Brasil. Está presente nos estados de Minas Gerais, Goiás, Tocantins, Bahia, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Piauí, São Paulo, Rondônia, Roraima e no Distrito Federal, ocupando cerca de 22% do território brasileiro. Exibe uma enorme biodiversidade vegetal e animal, patrimônio ameaçado pelo crescimento das monoculturas, como a soja, a pecuária extensiva e a carvoaria."

"Cerrado is the second largest ecological dominion of Brazil, where a continuous herbaceous stratum is joined to an arboreal stratum, with variable density of woody species. Around 220 species from cerrado are reported as used in the traditional medicine. In terms of area it is exceeded by only one vegetation formation in Brazil, the Amazonian forest covering approx. 3.5 million km².Brazilian Biodiversity: approximately two thirds of the biological diversity of the world is found in tropical zones, mainly in developing countries."

"Brazil is the country with the most biological diversity in the world. It is estimated that we have between 15% to 20% of all the planet's biodiversity. There are 55,000 different native species of plants in Brazil (22% of the world's total), distributed over six major biomes : Amazon (30,000); Cerrado (10,000); Caatinga (4,000); Atlantic rainforest (10,000), Pantanal (10,000) and the subtropical forest (3,000)."

"O Brasil é campeão mundial em biodiversidade: de cada cinco espécies do planeta, uma encontra-se aqui. Essa enorme variedade de animais, plantas, microrganismos e ecossistemas, muitos únicos em todo o mundo, deve-se, entre outros fatores, à extensão territorial e aos diversos climas do país. O Brasil detém o maior número de espécies conhecidas de mamíferos e de peixes de água doce, o segundo de anfíbios, o terceiro de aves e o quinto de répteis. Com mais de 50 mil espécies de árvores e arbustos, tem o primeiro lugar em biodiversidade vegetal. Nenhum outro país tem tantas variedades de orquídeas e palmeiras catalogadas. Os números impressionam, mas, segundo estimativas aceitas pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente (MMA), eles podem representar apenas 10% da vida no país. Como várias regiões ainda são muito pouco estudadas pelos cientistas, os números da biodiversidade brasileira tornam-se maiores na medida em que aumenta o conhecimento. Durante uma expedição de apenas 20 dias pelo Pantanal, coordenada pela ONG Conservation International (CI) e divulgada em 2001, foram identificadas 36 novas espécies de peixe, duas de anfíbio, duas de crustáceo e cerca de 400 plantas cuja presença naquele bioma era desconhecida pela ciência. O levantamento nacional de peixes de água doce coordenado pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP), publicado em 2004, indica a existência de 2.122 espécies, 10% a 15% delas desconhecidas até então."

Photos taken by Sonia Mascaro

THE TWO WOLVES: CHEROKEE’S STORY ABOUT NATIVE WISDOM

I read this story for the first time a few years ago on True Nature, Jenny’s blog, and now I want to share with you all this amazing Native Wisdom’s Story.

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A Grandfather from the Cherokee Nation was talking with his grandson.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."

"One wolf is evil and ugly: He is anger, envy, war, greed, self-pity, sorrow, regret, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, selfishness and arrogance."

"The other wolf is beautiful and good: He is friendly, joyful, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, justice, fairness, empathy, generosity, true, compassion, gratitude, and deep VISION."

"This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other human as well."

The grandson paused in deep reflection because of what his grandfather had just said. Then he finally cried out; "Oyee! Grandfather, which wolf will win?"
The elder Cherokee replied, "The wolf that you feed."

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Image Source: Kramer, Gary, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Image Source: Brooks, Tracy - Mission Wolf/USFWS,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Click to see Cherokee's Words of Wisdom

Click to see The Wolf Den Homepage pictures, facts, resources

Click to see Cherokee Home Page

Click to see Cherokee Culture and History Links

Click to hear Cherokee Songs in MP3 Format

SUNSET

Today's Photo Friday challenge is HEAT

Photos taken by Carlos Mascaro

EL PODER DE LA PALAVRA - THE POWER OF THE WORD

El Poder de la Palabra ( The Power of the Word) is a Website dedicated to poetic prose, where you will find fragments of 2724 literary texts, as well as the biographies and images of its authors.... You can see also works of art, images of architecture and classic and film music. There are 1816 writers, 752 composers, 423 painters, 342 film directors and 222 architects.

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I am enchanted and I am glad to discover this precious website and I want to share it with you all, even if this site is written in Spanish. You can use to translate it Babel Fish or Google Translate.

As example you can hear these music:

Banda sonora de la semana - Soundtrack of the week
El Gatopardo, 1963 - composer Nino Rota
Original title: Il Gattopardo (The Leopard)
Director: Luchino Visconti
You can hear the music here

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Compositor de la semana - Composer of the week
David Raksin - (USA, 1912-2004)
You can hear the music here

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I hope you enjoy this site as I did!

A FUNNY IDEA!

A funny and creative idea of the scientist Neil Gershenfeld. He made this card in 1995 to send to friends at New Years time. You can see another cards here.

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Neil Gershenfeld is a professor at MIT and the head of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, a sister lab spun out of the popular MIT Media Lab. His research interests are mainly in interdisciplinary studies involving physics and computer science, in such fields as quantum computing, nanotechnology, personal fabrication, and other research areas.

CAT ALONE

Today's Photo Friday challenge is Alone

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Photos by Sonia Mascaro

Click on photos to enlarge