Graphis scripta - elven script lichen on yellow birch bark
Fairies or elves have taken up residence near me, and keep a small home in the roots of a hillside
maple. It has a sturdy door I've never dared to open. I see signs of them everywhere in my woods,
including this curious writing found on the bark of yellow birch trees. For centuries people have
mistaken this script for the lirelliform fruiting bodies of a bark-loving lichen. Linnaeus and those
other fools think that the lichen actually shoots fungal spores from the little black gashes. Pshah.
I'm sticking with my version of the story.