Солжерс Делайт табиғи қорығындағы лишайлар

none
Lichens of Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area, a nature reserve located in Baltimore County, Maryland.

The Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area (Soldiers Delight NEA) is an environmentally sensitive area consisting of of land, and a visitor center, that is owned by the state of Maryland and managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The land consists of both serpentine barren and upland forest habitats. Chromite was mined at Soldiers Delight NEA until 1860 by Isaac Tyson, and some of the old mine shafts are still present. Four marked trails transverse the area and are a favorite hiking place for both humans and dogs. The most distinctive feature about Soldiers Delight NEA is the number of rare and endangered plants that occur on the serpentine barrens, including some of the wildflowers of Soldiers Delight. These endangered species include the sandplain gerardia, serpentine aster, flameflower, and fringed gentian.

Lichenology began at the Soldiers Delight NEA in 1976, when Allen C. Skorepa, Arnold Norden , and Donald Windler were awarded a grant from the Power Plant Siting Program of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to survey the lichens of Maryland. They surveyed the lichens from many areas throughout the state; one of which was Soldiers Delight. In 1977, they published their results and reported one location for each species of lichen that they identified. Thus, while they may have collected a particular species from numerous places they documented only one. So while they found numerous species of lichens at Soldiers Delight, only a few got recorded in their publication. Dr. Elmer G. Worthley of Baltimore County also had an interest in lichens and collected throughout Maryland and New England, but the Soldiers Delight Area was one of his favorite places. All of the lichens collected by Skorepa, Norden, and Windler were deposited in the herbarium at Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland. And all of the lichens in Elmer Worthley's herbarium were sent to the Lichen Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden in 2001.