Friday, 24 January 2025

Lichens at Jugger Howes Moorland - Cober Hill BLS Winter Meeting 2024 part 2

  

This follows on from  Lichens at Cober Hill BLS Winter Meeting 2024 part 1
On the Sunday afternoon  a small group of us led by Neil Sanderson went to look at some heathland at Jugger Howes moorland.

  




Cladonia callosa

Cladonia coccifera s.s. C coccifera has very wide shallow cups.
On the podetia there are just granules, not squamules. 

Baeomyces rufus again




Looking at some bales
bund to stop water and soil flow I suppose.


Bare areas - these have been further disturbed and heather sprinkled across. 
The bare areas were an interesting archaeological/cultural relict left from the disturbance during the second world war. If dense heather grows on the again it will be a more monotonous habitat.

See the heather sprinkled on the bare area below. Yest at the bottom right of the picture there is Cladonia callosa growing in the part shelter of the Heather







Musings on Location.
There was an old concrete "road" left from the days it was a training place in the second world war over 75 years ago That made walking easy for us and provided extra habitat for different species. We were at the "summit" of the plateau at 210m above sea level (and only 4km (3miles) away from the sea

It also led us not just into a new monad or even 10 km square but into a new 100km square - from NZ9400  to SE9499. 

Also - if Britain is divided into two, as happens in the Geology map of Britain, we step from the northern half in  NZ9400 (where we  parked the car)  to the "summit" in SE9499.

I see that the water that drains from where we are standing down a kilometer  into Judder Howe Beck that flows into the Derwent -- that then cuts a narrow valley south to Hackness then south through the Forge Valley to the Vale of Pickering .. then flows SW almost to York, then turns south through the Derwent Ings to join the river Ouse at Drax Power station.




I was pleased to see Collema tenax var ceranoides again, 
after having been introduced to it at a sandy path through the grass at
the BLS trip at Newsteads Abbey, Nottingham. Here is was growing at the edge of the concrete road


Rhizocarpon (most likely) petraeum on concrete road through heathland




Trapeliopsis  placodioides - with soralia and turns C red. (see dot)

We were pleased to find not just one, but three species of Umbilicaria. This likes acid rocks and clean air.

Umbilicaria on a flat boulder


Umbilicaria






Umbilicaria