Is this Hyperphyscia adglutinata? If so it is a new record for the hectad SD86. It's not recorded here yet on the BLS map. I discovered it whilst prospecting for a children's walk (see end of this post)
And these peach coloured blobs growing on some of the thalli? Maybe the lichenicolous fungus Paranectria oropensis
(I have since been told by Mark Seaward, County Lichen Recorder for Yorkshire that these have been found before in SD86 and VC65- Just seems that the records have not been put up on the distribution map website)
I found them on Saturday 11 Feb 2023 on the hornbeam tree in the Bond Lane children's play park next to Settle Primary School and Booths. SD81706361
Hyperphyscia adglutinata - the green grey thallus is less than 1cm across.
Hyperphyscia (means large Physcia) agglutinate (slightly different spelling) means "firmly stick or be stuck together to form a mass"
Negative chemical reactions.
The thallus lobes are less than 0.5mm wide and are are palmate. The lobes have a few simple rhizines. Dobson says: "The upper surface splits and the greenish soredia fill the crater shaped soralia."
As I looked lower down the trunk towards, if not to the dog pee zone, (this is a children's playground after all) well, to the soil splash zone I noticed that the thalli increased in size and abundance.
Dobson says "on rather shaded nutrient enriched trees (especially elder), frequently near the base, rarely also on nutrient enriched vertical rocks. Most common in sites subject to nutrient enrichment from dust and is rapidly spreading in urban areas. In the North, it may be becoming more common possibly due to global warming". Well all this fits. The trunks are getting shaded as the closely planted trees keep growing. I shall have to look for it on the other hornbeam tree in Ashfield Car park, and on any elders I find.
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| Location of SD86 |
Then I found some thalli with bright flesh-pink/peach-pink furry balls. At first I thought it was Erythricium aurantiacum but then I looked carefully.
It is Paranectria oropensis which Mark Powell in Dobson says" The small pale fluffy perithecia sit on a diffuse cobweblike sheet of hyphae" - that bit - cobwebby - fits. Then with more care at higher magnification I could see the ostioles (holes) in the perithecia.
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| This picture is about 3 mm across - so each pink ball is diameter 0.1 to 0.15 mm diameter. Can you see the dark orange of the ostioles? |
If I had time I would look at them under the microscope, and look for the large muriform ascospores with thread like extensions at each end. - but I have so many other jobs to do.. Maybe another day.
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Paranectria oropensis
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| The hornbeam trunk was covered in green "algae" |
Another thallus of Hyperphyscia
Closer inspection of the above picture : at the top is a small piece of Physcia tenella with longer white rhizines/cilia. then to the left of it some of the "algal" lumps have yellow tips - i.e. yellow soredia - So maybe this is the lichen Candelariella reflexa rather than "just an alga" - Needs further investigation...
The hornbeam tree is in the centre near the path.. Its crown has a symmetrical shape. These trees are less than 25 years old. It does not seem two minutes since 1998 when this area was one large long green field, and the people of Settle, myself included, were campaigning to keep it that way against proposals for a supermarket and a new primary school. By 2000 the primary school and then the supermarket were starting to be built and presumably these trees planted then. Now we value the new school and Booths supermarket. And from today the variety of trees planted here.
Here is a picture I took of the same tree on 15 December 2022, two months earlier: I like the symmetrical shape
Indeed I even noticed this new lichen then (Hyperphyscia-adglutinata) and took a photo on 12 December - then not knowing what it was.
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| And I photographed these unknown black fruiting bodies nearby here... Must go back another day. |
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My "good deed" may have paid off. Thank you!.
I came to this young children's play area in Settle, right next to the primary school and local supermarket, mainly to check out the trees and lichens with the possibility of coming here in three weeks time with "Eco Explorers" for a family after-school-walk (8th and 22 March). I got out my hand lens while listening to the amazingly melodious singing in the background of "incy-wincy-spider" by a six year old on the swings.
I specially wanted to revisit the Hornbeam tree. I had discovered it during my "Let's explore Trees to recognise and photograph their bark" phase just before Christmas (Not written up yet). This is only the second hornbeam tree I have seen in Settle. But I did not imagine I would find two new lichen/fungi species for the hectad on it.
Also in the play area is a 200 year old Beech tree. And young trees: Goat Willow, Cherry sp, Ash, Birch sp Grey Alder. And enough lichens and fruit on fallen twigs for us to be able to take a few specimens home should we wish to on our coming visit.
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