Friday the 23rd of February 2024 sees us assembling at Little Beck Wood - a steep narrow valley in the North York Moors quite near the coast..
... a group with eight members of the British Lichen Society and eight members of Whitby Naturalists' Club.
First, a group photo. Then we set off following the stream up this wooded valley.. part of the Coast to Coast Footpath. This was our Field Day - after this the Lichen Society would be indoors with their microscopes (or would we?) Find out...
On the dry side of an oak trunk we found some Lecanactis abietina.
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| Lecanactis abietina |
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| The handrail on the bridge over a side stream ... supporting .. |
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| Tiny dots of Micaria peliocarpa |
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| Tiny white dots of Micaria peliocarpa- picture is 1cm across |
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| Bacidia-I am waiting for Paul Canon who I hope will identify it for me. Picture is 1.2 cm across |
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| Cladonia polydactyla on rotting log |
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| Insect larva camouflaged as a lichen |
 | | This is the Hermitage. David and I struggled up the Hill, thinking that nearly everyone else was ahead. Paul Canon caught us up, carrying David's lunch, including some raspberries - they gave me a few. delicious - . We ate lunch and waited and waited.. Then decided we must have overtaken people or else they had gone on a different path. So we slowly descended. |
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| On a rock on the ground was some Baeomyces rufus with "huge" fruiting bodies |
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| Baeomyces rufus - huge about 3mm diameter. |
On the road was a postbox
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| With many lichens including Xanthoria polycarpa - the thalli are about 1cm across or less and are covered in apothecia |
Behind the red postbox was an ordinary wall made out of local stone, with acid crusts on it. This crust below was quite thick, and formed areoles. Neil later said it was Lepraria incana maybe s.s. He shone his UV torch on it. Little flecks in it went orange. This means that little areas of the lichen have the same pigment as Xanthoria parietina. (You need thin layer chromatography to do Leprarias)
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| Lepraria incana |
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| Lecanora campestris on the pavement there. |
We returned to Cober Hill Centre and set up our microscopes in their excellent big meeting room. Graham Boswell the Field Meetings Organiser gave us an introductory talk.
On the Saturday morning I woke early. (Annoying - I really needed the sleep) .. but I got up and went for a walk in the tennis court outside my room and then down the slope to the (children's) exercise/assault course.
People spent all morning sorting their specimens and using microscopes to identify them. I spent most of the time downloading my pictures and naming a few of them, then sticking some of my lichen specimens onto card. Neil pointed out that grey card backing, when using a UV torch was just about as bad as white card because the card fluoresced.
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Microscope work
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We had a "specimens table in the centre of the room which worked well. Here are a couple of pictures from them:
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| Arrhenia peltigerina on Peltigera - brought in by Nichola - found on fly-ash |
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| A few of us took an afternoon break to coast the coast 3/4 mile away. |
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| More Xanthoria polycarpa on a decayed wooden post near our sandstone post |
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| Lecanora orosthea on sandstone post |
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View from sandstone post - see the lynchets.
The others walked back to the centre |
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| I met a couple who had come to live in the area 6 months ago they took this picture- see their and their dogs' shadow). They said they had one seen dolphins in the sea here. |
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I returned to the centre.
This is an ash tree with Cliostomum griffithii on it |
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Cliostomum griffithii The black marks are pycnidia.
(Pycnidium (from Brittanica.com) , variable and complex flask-shaped asexual reproductive structure, or fruiting body, in fungi (kingdom Fungi) of the phylum Ascomycota; It bears spores (conidia).The spores are liberated through an opening (ostiole) in the pycnidium. |
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| Beside the road up to the second car-park is a post. At the sandstone base of the post is Lepraria lobificans |
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Lepraria lobificans.. this grows in shady places. It is fluffy pale green. It is whitish inside
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| View across tennis court towards sea into the sun at early morning |
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View across tennis court towards sea into the sun at early morning
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Graham asked to borrow specimens of Stereocaulon
from the BLS herbarium for us to look at. |
The next bit has been moved to a separate post:-
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