Sue

A selection of 24 wooden post tops with varying degrees of wood decomposition and moss / lichen growth.

There are 110 other posts in the vicinity and I took a closer look at about 40 of them. The original one I noticed still happened to be the best in my opinion, in terms of "terrain" and diversity.

Certainly fits with Lecidea stigmatea with that green exciple and colourless hypothecium, and spore size. Great spore pictures.

Thank you!

Yes, it has striations.

Think I might have panther cap in my lawn, along with Fly agaric and peppery bolete which I read is linked with the Fly agaric rather than tree roots

This is wonderful. I'd give my right arm to have had such an opportunity in the past. Share far and wide please. #lichengbi #lichen #lichens

If you have a sample and some acetone, this might confirm or deny. From McCune and Geiser, 2009https://lichens.twinferntech.net/hyna/characteristics.shtml#:~:text=Upper%20Surface%20Color%20of%20Thallus,crystalline%20deposit%20of%20usnic%20acid.

Today i noticed a thallus of Hypogymnia with yellow patches.I presumed a fungal attack, however a friend has suggested Usnic acid leachate 🤔🤔

Where I live in Scotland, it is in great colonies along the roadside. 45 miles from the sea and 800 feet up. Also seen further inland at over 1000 feet. And yes we salt the roads all winter. Not as common but spreading inland is Danish Scurvy Grass, Cochlearia danica.

More details in my blog
newtonmorewildflowers.blogspot.com/2025/07/woun...

Pink spikes of Hybrid Woundwort flowers with grass, Valerian and Hogweed in the backgound

Close up of pink flowers of Hybrid Woundwort with a grass head alongside (Yorkshire Fog, Holcus lanatus)

3 Woundworts in a row. Left to right: Marsh, Hybrid, Hedge

Comparison of flowers and leaves of Woundworts. Left to right: Marsh, Hybrid, Hedge The flowers get darker left to right and the leaves get wider and their stalks longer

Found a big stand of Hybrid Woundwort (Stachys x ambigua) which is a cross between Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris). Later in the walk I found the 2 parents. Comparison photos show all 3, L to R: Marsh, Hybrid, Hedge.

Picture of apothecial section in cross polarised light, and a second picture of one of the few spores I managed to find, with 10 micron scale bar. Text: Section in crossed pol – no large crystals in margin. All crystals dissolve in K No intact asci, scant spores 9.8x6.0µm 8.1x5.7µm 6.9x5.5µm

Picture of lichen and after testing with yellow stain from Pd on paper, red on lichen. Other tests C-, K+ yellow brown Text: Testing with fresh Pd: yellow turning red very quickly

2/2 Spores simple and elliptical. The Pd reaction was really quick, yellow to red.

2 photos of a light brown thallus on wood. A 10 cm ruler for scale. Text: Thallus 2 – fawn, crustose, areolate, granular with a few apothecia. 10cm x 2 cm along grain

Close up view of crustose thallus showing apothecia. Text: Thallus 2 – fawn, crustose, areolate, granular with a few apothecia. 10cm x 2 cm along grain

Picture of crowded apothecia. Text: Apothecial diameter, 0.6-0.7mm Green photobiont visible in margins, lecanorine

More from the garden fence. Another light brown crustose thallus but with a few apothecia. Puzzled over this one as not many spores. It keyed out as Lecanora conizaeoides which used to be really common in UK but is now much rarer according to Dobson. ID confirmed by Brian Coppins. #lichenGBI 1/2

Close up of many tiny squamules

Picture of a red drop of bleach (C+red) on the lichen. This reaction is really quick! Key details from Dobson: Key: Dobson Generic Key. 5. Squamulose, Key C, p35. No apothecia so no spores Looking at reaction, the only C+ red is Hypocenomyce p206 Couplet 1  Hypocenomyce scalaris

3 pictures of the same species but from a fence post in Fife. This thallus has black apothecia.

2/2 #lichenGBI More pictures of Hypocenomyce scalaris, and an example with apothecia. Usually I see this lichen on Scots pine trees but very pleased to find it on the fence.

An old wooden fence in the process of being reduced

5 pieces of wood with crustose lichens growing on them. Don't you just love it when you can take the piece of wood instead of having to try and cut a sample off!

A light brown crustose lichen with a 10 cm ruler in the photo for scale. The thallus is about 20cm by 5cm in size

A close up of the thallus showing several squamules (small scales) with white powdery edges, which are soredia. The red scale bar is 1mm. Larger squamules about 1.5mm but many much smaller.

We recently removed some of an old (pine) fence and as well as gaining some firewood, I acquired plenty of lichen samples to play with. So far, I have identified 2 of the crustose ones. First up is Hypocenomyce scalaris. No apothecia on my sample but unmistakeable C+red reaction #lichensGBI 1/2

Apologies, it should be spelt Pectinia

Pictures of the edge of the lichen with cm ruler for scale Some smaller new thalli showing lobes at margins, up to 8mm across, lobate, edges scalloped overlapping slightly.

Section of apothecium

Rather dark pictures of asci with 8 spores in each one

Sores shown in water and KOH Spore measurements in water: 14-16 um x 6-7um

2/2 More pictures of Pectinea plumbea showing apothecial section and simple elliptical spores

£ photos of a tree with a grey lichen covering much of the trunk. Habitat : Mixed deciduous woodland, Old woodland as some Lobaria. Substrate: On Aspen trunk, SW side. Thallus: Grey, large expanse (10cm ruler in photo), thick and lumpy, cracked with dark hypothallus showing.

A grey lichen with red apothecia and some black ones Reddish, lecideine apothecia, under 1mm across. Numerous. Also black apothecia and black areas. (“The principal host of Toninia plumbina, which can be mistaken for blackened apothecia of the host. LGBI3)

Close up of grey lichen with red apothecia and black infected ones

Grey underside of lichen showing rhizines

A visit to Beachen (say Bee - ach - en) Wood in Grantown-on Spey (NJ0228, vc75) surprised me with lichens I associate more with the West Coast and wetter weather. Here is Degelia plumbea (now Pectinea plumbea) #lichengbi 1/2

I had a similar one in the garden

Nice find! Earlier flowering than I expected so I will have to go and check my local population and see if they are out. Maybe the warm weather has hurried them along.

I have not done verrucarias so I can't confirm the species but I can admire a thorough approach when I see one. A very useful thread, Peter.

Thank you. A lovely crowded cornucopia. You see so much beauty when you get up close that other people are unaware of as they pass by.

Come on, Sylvia, tell us all of them!

If no joy then I cut another section and retry the bit that did not work! I use a tissue to drag the liquid through the slide

I don't heat at all. I usually mount in water, take pics, then draw K through the same slide, more pics, then draw ink through and wait a little, then clear with white vinegar (drawn through again). Just household white vinegar. That way you can get lots of pics from just one section.....

2 pictures of the same apothecium. Text: Apothecium. Infrequent –I found only one Brown disc, White thick margin, Halo of rhizines/cilia

Still here? I just love this solitary apothecium with its halo of cilia/rhizines. "Apothecia: infrequent, up to 1.5 mm in diam., sessile, the margin entire or grossly crenate, usually with a corona of rhizines" 3/3
lichenportal.org/portal/taxa/... CNALH

Picture of upper side of lichen showing numerous black cilia/rhizines with white tips

Picture of underside of lichen. Underside is black and has numerous black (simple) rhizines

Close up pictures of soralia looking like piles of tiny balls. Text reads: Areas of soralia Laminal and marginal Colour varies from dark, dark with lighter centre and bright green

Two photos of upper side of lichen when tested with K. Thallus K- except for orange section K+ red (pointed at with red arrow)

Pictures of the underside - dark with black rhizines. Dark soralia, some with green centres. Testing K- though orange sections of thallus were K+red. Hang on in there for the amazing apothecium in next post! 2/3

2 pictures of tree trunks in Scotland. Text: Habitat: 2 mature Aspen by stream and sheep field Large area of grey lichen on trunk of one tree, west facing side About 60 cm by 20 cm, made up of smaller areas on raised portions of bark

Pictures of greyish lichen on bark. Text: Small foliose lobes (width less than 1mm) interspersed with immature Physcia (tenella or adscendens) and moss. Difficult to make out details with naked eye. Lobes closely appressed.

Piece of lichen with mm scale. A small piece of Physcia also attached. Lichen of interest is the area with grey green lobes and some round areas of black and green

Pictures of wet and dry lichen. It turned greener when wet.

Phaeophyscia orbicularis #lichenGBI. The first time I found this I struggled to get to an ID as it was not orbicular at all, just a series of amalgamated thalli. This will be a longish thread but shows how these don't always look like their pictures in the books! 1/3 (I think!)

A concrete gatepost with two circular lichen thalli. A white on on the left is Physcia caesia and a darker muddy green lichen on the right is Phaeophyscia orbicularis. There are three little chunks of moss in between and a little patch of Physcia adscendens on the extreme right.

Physcia caesia with blueish balls of soralia in the centre

Phaeophyscia orbicularis. This one is is a dirty grey with darkened edges to the lobes and a mass of even dirtier grey soralia in the centre.

Here's Physcia caesia and Phaeophyscia orbicularis on the same concrete gate post. P. caesia (on left) is whiter with blueish soralia. Phaeo. orbicularis (on right) is darker. As Anthony says, this was alongside a main road. Haven't read his field notes yet so willing to be corrected!

I bought my hardback copy, third edition, just £1.98 on Amazon in 2016. Ex library copy and £65 on the flysheet!