Moss Musings – Twenty Years of OMLA

With twenty years of forays, meetings, fellowship, and good times in our past, and beginning to realize that it was time to turn the organization over to younger hands, I spent a day re-reading the OBELISK. From those issues, I am summarizing the history and accomplishments of the Ohio Moss and Lichen Association.

At the 2004 Botanical Symposium, Ray Showman and I announced that we wanted to form an Ohio organization that would focus on bryophytes and lichens. The first meeting of the OMLA was held on June 3, 2004, at Gorman Nature Center, Lexington, Ohio. Founding members were Mark Zloba, Rich McCarty, Roger Troutman, Diane Lucas, Steve McKee, Donn Horscher, Don Flenniken, Janet Traub, Jim Toppin, Jim McClenahen, Alvan Jose, Tara Poling, Ray Showman, Barb Andreas, Merrill Tawes, Jim McCormac, Rick Gardner, and Barbara Lund. The names underlined became life- long members.

Following the organizational meeting, the group went on its first foray to Mohican State Park, Richland County. No collections or species lists were made from this foray.

The OBELISK. The following year, 2005, Don Flenniken began writing and publishing the newsletter. He named our annual newsletter the OBELISK (Ohio Bryophytes et Lichens: Identification, Species, Knowledge). Don was editor from 2005 – 2007. Two issues were published in 2007. The first, like the previous three, were mailed to OMLA members.

Beginning with the second 2007 edition, the newsletter became digital, and Ray Showman joined Don as a second editor. Ray and Don produced the OBELISK until 2009. From 2009 – 2016, Janet Traub joined Ray as editors. From 2017 – 2020, Bob Klips joined Ray as editors. From 2021 to present, Carole Schumacher and Brandon Ashcraft are editors.

For almost every issue, there were four staples: The Left Hand Corner (usually written by an editor), Moss Musings (written by me), species lists from our forays, and photos of the forays’ participants (usually taken by Bob Klips). The issues ranged in size from 6 pages to 44 pages. Often, there were columns on “Wanted Alive”, where members would describe a species of a bryophyte or lichen that had not been collected in Ohio in many years. We were all excited when a “Found Alive” column was written.

OMLA Website:
www.ohiomosslichen.org

In 2008, Brian Gara and Bob Klips, with technical assistance from Steve McVey, developed the website for OMLA. This site provides historical information of the forays, copies of the OBELISK, distribution maps
for mosses and lichens, and announcements of upcoming meetings and forays. Important publications and an abundance of photographs are available. The website has been maintained by Bob Klips.

Remembrances of Members. To date, four remembrances have been published in the OBELISK. Mike Kangas joined OMLA in 2010 to learn lichen identification skills. He passed away on April 6, 2012. Bob Burrell joined OMLA in 2009, and for the next 4 years contributed at least one article to the OBELISK. He passed away on July 23, 2012. Founding member Don Flenniken, first editor of the OBELISK, and author of numerous articles and poems, passed away on October 12, 2012. Diane Lucas, a founding member of OMLA, passed away on July 16, 2022. She was a major contributor to the OBELISK.

Forays. Since its beginnings, OMLA has conducted two forays each year. Typically, the spring/summer foray is one day long, and the fall foray varies from 2 – 4 days. One of OMLA’s purposes is to collect in each of Ohio’s 88 counties. In 2024, we will have completed forays in half of Ohio’s counties.

Until 2022, each foray had a “host” that selected the county to visit and explored potential collecting sites within the county. The first “official” fall foray was hosted in 2004 by Mark Zloba at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve, Adams County. Jim Toppin and Janet Traub hosted the first spring foray to Lucas County, 2005.

The hardiness of the group was demonstrated when, in the presence of Covid-19, forays were still held. For both the summer and fall 2020 forays, members wore masks when meeting for instructions and lunch.

The primary mission of the OMLA is to add to the knowledge of lichen and bryophyte distribution in Ohio. Since 2004, the numbers of new county records for these groups have been fantastic. As indicated in the tables below, the total for macrolichens is 550, with 995 new records for mosses and 181 for liverworts. In addition to these new county records, OMLA forays have added six new state records for mosses: Brachythecium velutinum (Darke), Pohlia bulbifera (Lucas), Schistidium crassithecium (Miami); Leratia exigua [Orthotrichum exiguum] (Ashtabula), Thuidium delicatulum var. radicans (Pickaway), and Tortella fragilis (Sandusky).

New County Records for Bryophytes

OMLA members have also been very successful in finding new lichens for Ohio: macrolichens Canoparmelia amabilis (Washington), Hyperphyscia confusa (Defiance), Physciella melanchra (Darke), Usnea cornuta (Vinton), Usnea substirilis (Lawrence), Xanthoparmelia angustiphylla (Montgomery), Usnea hirta (Summit), Usnea dasaea (Portage); and crustose species Acarospora obpallens (Washington), Acarospora oreophila (Trumbull), Lecanora caesiorubela (Vinton), Lecanora cenisia (Vinton), and Lecanora muralis (Miami).

New County Records for Macrolichens

The 2006 Combined Crum/Tuckerman

Workshops. Although we were a new organization, OMLA offered a joint Crum/Tuckerman Workshop in southern Ohio. It was held from May 19 – 22, 2006. The Crum/Tuckerman workshop attracts professionals and skilled amateurs from the United States and Canada.

One hundred and thirteen species of macrolichens, 127 species of crustose lichens, 8 species of lichenicolous fungi, 159 species of mosses, and 32 species of liverworts were collected. Three macrolichens were reported as new to the state: Heterodermia pseudospeciosa, Parmotrema gardneri, and Physcia plumilior. Four presumed extirpated species of mosses were re-discovered: Anomodon viticulosus, Drummondia prorepens, Weissia sharpii, and Thuidium allenii. [The above information is taken from Andreas, B.K., R.E. Showman, and James C. Lendemer. The 2996 Combined Crum/Tuckerman Workshop in Ohio. Evansia 24 (3) p. 55 – 59.]

Summary. Ray Showman and I used to joke that OMLA was the “Barb and Ray” show. In the early years, with much input from Don Flenniken, Diane Lucas and Bob Klips, we took care of the forays, finances, annual meetings, and the majority of articles contributed to the OBELISK. Those days are over. Ray and I have slowly slid into OMLA obscurity, knowing that a new crew, under the leadership of Tomάs Curtis, will carry the organization onward.

-Barb Andreas