Unfortunately I didn't take any closeups. After some searching I think this was probably xanthoria. It was dry, flakey, and had those fairy cup fruiting bodies. Not so obvious in any of my pics.

Here is the other I took.

Azores are windy I guess? Seems to grow only on one side of the trunk.

What's the light green fluffy stuff? Lichen, too?

Damn I'm jealous of you being there.

This is interesting! Are you sure it's a lichen and not an algae? I'm no expert, but it looks closer to Orange Rock Hair algae, with the velvet looking texture. Do you have any close up photos?

Damn that's nice

Here it is on a tree. It consistently grew on this species but not others.

Looks like salad.

A beautiful lichen indeed.

Thank you. We truly live in an awesome time for nature. So many different species of plants and animals span our pale blue dot. I wish we respected it more than vanity and Internet clout though. Hopefully someday we'll change.

Nuthatch

Sounds like astroturf for roofs 😉

Seriously though it's interesting how the USA are a "Western" country in every way but then have this completely different flora and fauna.

And a great picture as usual all the way down to the cropping decision.

I'm lichen these puns!

Thank you. For sure this was an awesome find. One of my favorite photos I've taken yet. I'm just glad I had my macro lens nearby.

Wow, stunning photo! Gallery-worthy if you've ever thought about doing something like that. Thanks so much for sharing.

Amazing find!

Yeah! It's definitely giving Hypogymnia vibes in some of the photos I've seen.

Wow! Never seen this one before. It's amazing!

Same. That vibrant orange is so nice to look at, especially in winter. All those tiny apothecia are beautiful.

Looks great! These are some of my favorite types of lichen!

today i learned!

I asked the instructor of a lichen class I took a couple months ago and this was her response to the photo:

It's just moss with some dry spots in it. Mosses don't lichenize; the photosynthesizer is going to be either an algae, a cyanobacteria, or both.

maybe! i'm not well versed. all i know is that towards the edges you have the typical simple structure of moss but in the middle it's gotten to looking more like little yellow christmas trees

So in this case is the moss the photosynthesizer of the lichen symbiotic network in conjunction with fungi and yeast...?

Looks like moss to me, I don't think lichenized moss is a thing. Some close up shots would help.

just the one. my dog was needing to keep moving. let me look up peltigera…

My guess would be Peltigera but I'm on my phone in heavy sunlight.

Any other shots?

i know it looks like a straight moss but this is a moss/fungus lichen colony.