Wednesday 15 October 2014

Lichens of Horton-in-Ribblesdale Churchyard with Mothers Union


Here's Horton in Ribblesdale churchyard, on a sunny day..

Here's Horton, Stainforth and Langcliffe Mothers Union
on 13 October, on not quite such a sunny day inside the church.

Here we are looking at the boundary wall in the north.
You can see we are holding the
"Guide to the Top Twenty lichens of Horton churchyard"
 that I had prepared



Lichen number 1 was on the porch wall.
One member even mentioned this one before I started

Can you see it here? The bright orange one.
I decided to call it "Limestone orange lichen"
 in the absence of any other English name "
in

Its Latin name is Caloplaca flavescens.
It is a crustose lichen. The edge of the lichen has narrow, pleated lobes
and this feature is referred to as "placodioid".

You'll recognise it again at the stile at the east.
Same view of stile but from a distance.

This gravestone is location number 4 in the guide.
On the top of the stone is "Shiny Brown Shield Lichen",
  Melanelia fuliginosa. Looks as if someone has tried to
remove it from the top of this gravestone in the fairly recent past.
And lower down covering the majority of the stone
is this green filamentous alga "Klebsormidium crenulaturm"
- an indicator of of Nitrogen compounds polluting the air
(and also heavy rainfall and an acid rock substratum).

Klebsormidium crenulatum - "Nuisance Alga"


Do you know this lichen?
(lichen number 3 on the map on the Horton churchyard guide).
There is lots of it on the slaty cliffs  above at
Wharf in Crummackdale 3 miles away.
And lots in the Lake District and North Wales.



Yes, It's Map Lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum


Seen in the foreground above: and also below:  the Rusty Shielded Lichen Caloplaca crenularia 


Caloplaca crenularia is a new species for me.
It grows inland and at the seaside.
Later that evening I was delighted to receive
by email from the British Lichen Society
a list of lichens that had been recorded
in this churchyard in 1993 by Don Smith.
He found 46. And Caloplaca crenularia was listed amongst them.


You can see me on the right.
We are admiring the lichens on a gravestone made
of a natural piece of local limestone

Nearby, in the corner  is Anthony Greenbank's gravestone.  It had a variety of lichens including the big white patches of Aspicilia calcarea  and, shown below, "The Fire Dot Lichen ": Caloplaca holocarpa


Fire Dot Lichen

A warm cup of tea is welcome inside afterwards.

One I didn't show them,  as it involved walking
through lumpy grass and then getting down to ground level:  Lecanora campestris  (see below)


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