BIO 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Armillaria Gallica, Armillaria, Xanthoparmelia
31 Jan 2019
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In a place for the dead, studying a seemingly immortal species. On a sparkling new england afternoon, as hawks coasted overhead and yellow leaves drifted to the ground, anne pringle stood before a large granite obelisk that marked the graves of a family called french. In this bucolic cemetery, steps from the headquarters of harvard"s research forest, she was pondering mortality. Pale green and vaguely ruffled, like calcified doilies, lichens grow all over the tombstones and the old stone walls that fringe properties in this part of the world. For eight years, dr. pringle, 42, has been returning to this cemetery each fall, to measure, sketch and scrutinize the lichens, which belong to the genus xanthoparmelia. She wants to know whether they deteriorate with the passage of time, leaving them more susceptible to death. Biologists call it senescence: the grim reality of decline with age.
