Blink

Have you ever had the experience where you just look at something and you know in an instant what it is?  (That’s the premise for the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell.)  I had that experience in the gorge last week when I found something green growing alongside the creek.

A part of my mind said instantly, “Liverwort.”  Another part of my mind said, “What are you talking about?  You don’t even know what a liverwort is.  Stop trying to be so knowledgeable!”  I took lots of pictures and asked my good friends at ID Please on Flickr.  Guess what?  It’s liverwort.  Snake Liverwort.  Conocephalum conicum.

There are two main categories of liverworts - thalloid and leafy.  Snake is the largest in the first category.

I guess I must have learned about liverworts in that same biology class when I learned that there are 2 kingdoms of living things…  It was still stuck back there in the gray matter somewhere and <BLINK> - suddenly it emerged, though I hadn’t needed that information for decades.

Aren’t brains amazing things?

Learn more about it here:

• http://www.botany.ubc.ca/bryophyte/conocephalum.html