Ingleton Churchyard Lichens - 2

 (Click to return to Site 1)

(Remember: Sat 20 June 2015: date of introductory lichens workshop here)

This is Site 2 of the walk to look at the lichens of Ingleton churchyard           

From where you are standing in front of the cross, turn 90 degrees to the left and look at the outside of the church wall. The wall  is made of limestone, except for the capstones, which are made of gritstone. There is a black crustose lichen on the limestone, which,with close inspection, has a blue edge. This is Placynthium nigrum. The thallus is delimited by a wide dark blue felted prothallus, and the inner part of the thallus has a scaly texture

 The moss is Wall Screw-moss - Tortula muralis

Nearby on the limestone is a yellow powdery looking lichen

Caloplacca citrina

If you look closely there are some jam tart shaped tiny cups with white rims and golden yellow centres. These are the reproductive bodies called apothecia. This is Caloplaca citrina which grows on hard limestone. If a drop of alkali is added (KOH) it should go crimson.

Walk 2 m along the  churchyard wall on the left, so that you are looking at the wall but with the cross nearby

The capstones are made of sandstone/gritstone

On top of the gritstone capstone there are  patches of a very white crustose lichen. 

This has been grazed by slugs and much of it removed so it is not possible to say what speicies it is.

If it has been raining recently you will see on the side of the wall  black Jelly lichen in some of the cracks of the wall. I shall call this one Ear Black Jelly Lichen: Collema auriforme
If it is dry, the black lichen is pressed against the wall, almost as thin as paper. It grows in cracks in the limestone wall and on the mortar. When wet it is greenish black, as below.

 Here it is closer up. The tiny spherical blobs are called idisia.  They can break off and get carried away and then grow and form new plants.

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Near by, and lower down is another species of black jelly lichen -  It is Leptogium lichenoides. Its lobes are rather thin, concave, with deeply incised margins so it looks frilly. It dries brown/lead grey, not blackish as do the Collemas.

Leptogium lichenoides 

Leptogium lichenoides 

Leptogium lichenoides 

Near by - Is this another black jelly lichen? It certainly feels like jelly.. or more like goo.
Or is it just a blue-green alga?

An alga

Agonimia tristicula - a tiny tiny lichen
hidden in the dark crevices - near the green signpost

Agonimia tristicula

Agonimia tristicula

A 2cm diameter yellow dry patch nearby, when examined closely, has more structure

This is a species of Caloplaca. (decipiens?  ) The edge of the thallus is pleated. This type of margin is given the name placodioid

On the hard limestone rock you can see white lichens and there are tiny holes, some empty, some filled with black material - At first I though it was  Verrucaria   baldensis  (if the perithecia (black dots) are  .25mm diameter).

But very close inspection show the black fruiting bodies have greyish rims -so they are apothecia 

 rather than perithecia - bun shaped, with a star shaped hole on top.

So it must be Clauzadea immersa

See the pale grey rims round the black apothecia of Clauzadea immersa

Leave the outside wall and go up the steps, through the church yard gate.

End of Site 2.

Click to go to Site 3

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THE SEVEN POSTS IN THIS SERIES

1. The lichens on the cross but just lower than this picture below
2. The lichens on the wall in the foreground to the left of this picture
3. The lichens on several graves near to this one:-
4. The lichens on the flat slab of this table tomb
5. The white lichens round the door to the church
6. The lichens on the branches of the tree
7. The lichens round the back of the church

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Ingleton Churchyard Lichens - 1

Would you like to learn a little about the fascinating plants that encrust tree bark, rocks and places that are too dry for other plants?

Come on a Lichens Workshop for COMPLETE BEGINNERS. 
10am-12pm Sat 24 May - in the beautiful Dales village of Ingleton
as part of the 2014 Ingleton Overground Underground Festival (23-26 May)

Your eyes will be opened to a new magical world. You'll find you start noticing shapes, colours and textures on objects in the landscape that you never noticed before. You'll go back home knowing a few common lichens (knowledge that you can share with your friends)  and you'll be enthusiastic to learn more.

You can pronounce its "litchen" or "liken" - whichever sound you like best.  I now say "liken"

So what lichens might we see?

This and the next 6 posts (Ingleton Churchyard Lichens - parts 1 to 7) describe the lichens you can see in the churchyard, as you walk through 7 different areas.  They are made up of photos taken on three visits: 30 Jan, 3 March and 21 March 2014. Special thanks are given to Dr Allan Pentecost who accompanied myself and two friends on 21 March for his help in identifying the lichens. 

Don't worry if you don't remember all the names just now - simply enjoy looking at the colours.

Here is the memorial cross outside the Churchyard. I

Here are the seven sites we are going to visit, (marked with while and red numbers on the picture below).

1. The lichens on the cross but just lower than this picture (this post)
2. The lichens on the wall in the foreground to the left of this picture
3. The lichens on several graves near to this one:-
4. The lichens on the flat slab of this table tomb
5. The white lichens round the door to the church
6. The lichens on the branches of the tree
7. The lichens round the back of the church

Site 1. 
The lichens on the war memorial cross and on the paving slabs below.

Let's get our hand lens out.





Can you see the two blobs touching each other vertically near the base of the cross?

Well lo and behold, the first one I chose to look at we can't identify because the slugs have gazed it hard an removed all distinguishing features

Look just below them there is a yellow powdery lichen. this is Candellariella vitellina we'll see lots more of this yellow lichen later

Seen close up..the cross is in fact covered with lichen -
Candelariella vitellina

Lichens are an association of a fungus and an algae. The fungal threads give the lichen structure and they collect water and nutrients. The algae are scattered amongst the fungus as single cells, and they can photosynthesise and capture the sun's energy, so can make sugars.
The body of a lichen is called a THALLUS.

The white, and the yellow lichens are CRUSTOSE lichens. They make crusts on the surface of the rock.

.If you go round the back of the cross to where I have marked an arrow on this diagram, you can see Lecanora ....

Lecanora..is this Lecanora intricata?.....

Looking at the side there are twp patches near the lower middle

The centre right blob is Porpidia tuberculosa

Porpidia tuberculosa

Allan is looking at Buellia aethallia -
 this is blackish and grows on very smooth acid rocks.

Buellia aethallia

Caloplaca flavovirescens

Caloplaca flavovirescens - This turns red with alkali

Caloplaca flavovirescens

This is the white lichen in the centre tile of the above picture.
It is Lecanora contorta

is

Somewhere under their noses is Verrucaria fusconigrescens 

Verrucaria fusconigrescens  on the left

Left: Verrucaria fusconigrescens
Right:  Aspicillia calcarea

From where you are standing in front of the cross, turn 90 degrees to the left and look at the top of the limestone cap-stones  of the church yard wall - indeed over the top is a table tomb.

or the same stones looking back in.

Caloplaca flavescens bright orange

More Verrucaria fusconigrescens

Aspicillia contorta (var hofmanii)

Verucaria nigrescens

End of site 1.

 Click to proceed to site 2   ( the 3 metres of outside churchyard-wall between here and the green sign post )

Flowering Times - First Day of Spring

Today is the Spring Equinox - 20 March 2014 16.57GMT
We have had a warm "late winter".
 Rain and strong winds were forecast for later today - So I went out on a morning walk.
I challenged a friend on the internet to look for wild flowers in flower. - So I made a record of what I saw.

And found 12 Wild plants in flower:
Butterbur (Petasites hybridus) (just)
Goat willow (Salix caprea)
Early Scurvy-grass (Cochlearia danica) (Only 1 plant in flower)  (Stainforth)
Wavy Bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa)
Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)
Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra)
Town Hall Clock (Adoxa moschatellina)
Primrose (Primula vulgaris) (just)
Opposite-leaved Golden-Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppostifolium)
Hazel (Corylus avellana)
Ivy-leaved Speedwell (Veronica hederifolia) (just)
Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua)

I saw a Grey-squirrel and a Dipper.
And Great Tit and Chaffinch.
And a run-over hen on the road footpath

I saw some not-open Sloe and not-open Rue-leaved Saxifrage.
and a few bottles and cans in the verge.
There was a Prunus type tree in flower in someone's garden.

And found an interesting lichen (to be identified) at Stackhouse.) and No Syntrichia on trees near the river at Stainforth.


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in other places I have seen Groundsel and Spring Whitlow-grass

Eycott Hill, Cumbria Bryologists

 Windy and cold - is how I would describe the weather on 16th March - But warm and enthusiastic is how I would describe the company at the Cumbria Bryology group meeting at Eycott Hill,

The first big rock

Eycott Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest next to the Lake District, just north of the road from Penrith to Keswick. 

The Cumbria Wildlife Trust are raising money to buy it. 

The area is scheduled as a SSSI for both its biology and its geology, being the type location for the Eycott Hill Volcanics, one of the oldest areas of volcanic activity in the Lake District

Diane is photographing Hedwigia ciliata - The Fringed Hoar-moss -
 Just need to check it isn't the Starry Hoar-moss H stellata

Closer up

And closer

Now sprayed with water

Examining our finds

So far we think this is Spahgnum angustifolium 
because of the rounded heads, like pompoms
the light green colour and the long pendent branches.

Sphagnum angustifolium (Fine Bog-moss)

)

Sphagnum contortum - Twisted Bog-moss
This grows where the water is slightly more basic

Straminergon stramineum - Straw Spear-moss

Climbing up

Looking back down

Racomitrium fasciculare on a rock

Scorpdium cossoni (formerly Drepanocladus revolvens var. intermedius)  
Intermediate Hook-moss  the shoots grow upright and the leaves curl.

Hamatocaulis vernicosus
Varnished Hook-moss - A protected species.

Hamatocaulis vernicosus 
Varnished Hook-moss

Racomitrium aquaticum on sheltered rock face

What have we here?

Hypnum lacunosum  Great/roof Plait-moss 

Here are few lichens we saw on the rocks.

Maybe Tephromela atra?

Tephromela atra? or Lecanora gangaleoides?

Cladonia subservicornis

Cladonia subservicornis

Rock Tripe Lasallia pustulata 

Rock Tripe Lasallia pustulata

Parmelia omphalodes

Parmelia omphalodes

Xanthoparmelia conspersa