This image is the Microflora of Pisgah National Forest.

Local artist created. Printed in Asheville.

The Pisgah National Forest, from the hebrew word for summit, contains mind-bending diversity (~1,900 species) and in higher elevations receives sufficient rainfall to be classified temperate rainforest. Some of my favorite members of the community are considered microflora, and are easy to miss, however they are emblematic of these wet environments, often found along sides of trails and rock outcroppings, each with their own fascinating evolutionary history. The Lycopodium for example,is a kind of clubmoss, one of the earliest land plants with abundant fossil records +400,000,000 years ago, long before dinosaurs. Whereas the Cladonia, commonly referred to as reindeer moss (it is eaten by Caribou further north), is botanically known as a lichen, which is a mutualism of fungi (95%) and algae (5%), that creates unique acids enabling them to eat solid rock