Sagiolechia protuberans - Lichens, mosses, bog, pavement - Cumbria-Swaledale border

On 24 August 2024 I joined the Cumbria Lichens and Bryophytes group at NY8115004105 on  the B6270  at 506m above sea-level at the County boundary -

The lichens sub group at the
boundary between Cumbria and Yorkshire.
there were also four bryologists.

on the road joining  Nateby (Kirby Stephen) in the Eden Valley (Cumbria) to the top of Swaledale (Yorkshire). 

The wiggly road that goes up Swaledale past Thwaite and Keld and beyond to the summit at c 506m  from where it then descends steeply into the Eden valley to  Nateby and Kirby Stephen.  

We were at the point more or less where the foopath from the top of Mallerstang Edge crosses this road to get to Nine Standards Rigg to the north. (I have memories of practising for the fells man c 35 years ago.). This is 35 miles from my home and Google maps said it would take 1 hour 8 minutes. (It said the same time  or a couple of minutes longer for the route via the M6 51 miles)

Black Roses

The new lichen for the day for me was Sagiolechia protuberans found on the top surface of some flat low limestone pavement blocks, right next to the bog..  

Pete has named it "Black Roses"

The black apothecia are small - but very distinctive:  Found simultaneously by Chris and Pete.. but we had to wait for Caz to turn up and give it a name. 

The thallus is immersed in the rock but can give the rock a pinkish orangish hue. The apothecia stand proud of the rock and look a bit gyrose. LGBI2 says: "The black star shaped apothecia with a sterile central cone are diagnostic."

Sagiolechia protuberans

Looking at Sagiolechia protuberans

One of the first things we had noticed on the clint - were the balck patches of Placynthium nigrum (left), and its the parasite Toniniopsis verrucarioides (top right)

We also found about four species of Peltigera on the turf semi-overlapping this clint, including Peltigera canina.  

The 9.30 start had been put back to 12 midday for some of us and to 1.30pm for the rest because heavy rain had been forecast in the morning - (and we were pleased to miss it). I think we found the only dry 5 hours of the weekend.

We started looking at the bog/wet heath.   

Interesting fungus

 

The part near the road was higher, drier and had some heather in flower. And  had this interesting unnamed Fungus above. But we walked to where there were peat hags and low wet areas. We looked on the side of the peat cliffs

Campylopus introflexus (Heath Star-moss) - v common on tree stumps, and peat (invasive  from Australia first seen in UK in 1941)
and Cladonia ramulosa - pale chocolate coloured blobs. The blobs swell up when wet. 

The Sphagnum tenellum see BBS description is at the foot of the peat bank, lower part of this picture - (above it is Sphagnum subnitens. )  

Look for a small, delicate Sphagnum with small concave leaves (making the plants looked beaded) and undifferentiated spreading and pendent branches. At the tips of some branches the two small uppermost leaves diverge widely, giving them a ‘birds beak’ or ‘crab’s claw’ appearance   BBS  

Occurs on acidic, bare, peaty ground, especially frequent in small hollows on bogs. Also on wet heaths and on well-drained, but very humid, heathery slopes in districts with high rainfall.

We returned to the cars to meet the others who came at 1.30pm. We looked at a few cement posts at the car park to record additional species.  

The Physcia caesia was fruiting profusely.

There was this lichen with black rimmed black apothecia.

Physcia caesia (right), Caloplaca holocarpa sens lat centre (we think)

After lunch, 

Back north west on the wet heath/bog again, we found an area where "Peat Restoration" work had taken pace. There were little dams blocking up the channels. Harder to understand was the spreading of heather stems on the ground. Had the workers smoothed out the steep banks (where we were finding interesting species)? And covered covering the smoothed banks with the heather stalks.. Leading to a much more boring habitat w.r.t. lichens (and mosses?) 

Heather stems spread on the ground

Heather stems spread on the ground

Smoothed banks.

We did find some Cladonia digitata. 

Cladonia digitata - the only  (or main) red Cladonia that can have cups. The underside of the squamules are sorediate (white powdey). It is a grey-green (not yellow green) Cladonia.

We left the wet heath and  came to the limestone pavement area.

Diploschistes muscorum on moss and it had formerly been growing on Cladonia) on limestone pavement surface.  It was near here we saw the Sagiolechia protuberans mentioned at the beginning.

Sagiolechia protuberans

Between the peat bog area and the Limestone pavement are was a row of "Buttertubs" - Acid water draining from the peat had dissolved deep holes between the clints.  

Chris led us half way down one of these to see some rock ledges with Solorina saccata

Outside the fenced off "Buttertubs" area I found a shining bright green 6cm tuft of a moss growing on top of  a hummock of Polytrichum strictum. We think it is Tetraplodon mnioides. This grows on scats of carnivores left on top of hummocks of moss or rocks. Its leaves have long curly hair points. (Splachnum moss has shorter hairpoints)

Tetraplodon mnioides - Slender Cruet-moss

Clare (mosses) and I walked back to the cars.
I had been busy photographing other people but had none of myself.
So I asked her to take a photograph of me looking at the sandstone slab on the YRNP sign.  She was in Cumbria and
I am standing in Yorkshire with the start of Swaledale behind me.

On the sandstone capstone of the YDNP sign was this lichen: Lecanora intricata.  
 (flexuose margins to apothecia and wrinkled areole surfaces)
What to do with the result?
This was maybe in Yorkshire not Cumbria. And the stone would have been brought in from a quarry somewhere. In real life it looks much greener than this picture.

 

To Catalonia and back by bus - to see lichens Part1: The Bus Trip

This is a post about 

Using buses and public transport to get 
from Settle in N Yorkshire UK 
to Barcelona and L'Espluga de Francoli in Catalonia, NW Spain.

(Lichens and the lovely countryside will wait for a later post.)

    (I will update this post with pictures and links in due course)

The British Lichen Society Field Trip in July-August 2024 was a trip to Catalonia.

"I have never been to Spain" I thought, "and this friendly, keen lichenologist, Maria, who I know via our Lichen Zoom group  will be helping with the itinerary. "I will go".

I do not fly.  

Flying causes global warming.

(For evidence -  on one day our walk in the mountain forest near Espluga had to be curtailed when restrictions were put up due to official fire risk warnings)

I will use buses.

What bus services did I use?

In the end I went out using Flixbus,
and returned using Blablacar Barcelona to London and Megabus for London-Leeds.  They were all fine.  You can book them all online. 

They all have significant 10-20 minute stops every c three hours at good service stations where they strongly encourage you to have a break - where you can use the loo, buy drink and stretch your legs. 

(My one take home story if I ever write the whole of this holiday/study trip up is the importance of using Smartphones. (in August 2024)  - more important than speaking Spanish or Catalan.

Most of the buses had USB ports for charging and using your phone.)

Deliberations:

It is quite easy to get to Spain overland, I argued. I have not flown since 1987 (to visit a botanist friend in Cameroon, West Africa). But I have travelled by bus all the way to Sweden and back before, and by train to East Germany and to France.  It is a hot time of year - I should need very few spare clothes, so the luggage would not be too heavy.

Bus was going to be the cheaper option. Also with Flixbus I could book from Leeds to Barcelona.. So any delays mishaps en route would be the bus companies responsibility. The thought of several separate train journeys and trains being late and working out how to make connections did not appeal.

Both the journey out (door to door) and the journey home (door to door) took about 48 hours but with a good number of interesting breaks en route, including an evening walk above the River Seine on the evening before the Olympics Opening Ceremony. 

Outward:  

Left home near Settle at 7.45pm and arrived at the Hotel in Espluga de Francoli c 5.30pm  = 46 hours. (Plus 2 days because I spent 2 days in Barcelona first) 

Return: Hotel at Espluga de Francoli at 7am to catch the 7.45am train to Barcelona.... arriving at Settle railway station at 6.15 am and waking home to get there at 7am. 

     -----------------------------------------------------

In detail: 

 7.45pm My  neighbour gave me lift to Settle Railway Station:

 8.15pm - 9.15 pm Settle to Leeds by train

I then walked to the pick up point 1km from the Railway Station. This was outside on Crown Point Road, outside the IBIS hotel. This was one of the hardest things about travelling by bus, is finding the pick up points, which are NOT labelled "Bus Pick up point".  Fortunately the Ibis hotel is open I think 24 hours a day and they were very happy to sell me a large drinking chocolate, and let me sit in the otherwise empty cafe, and let me use the loo.  I could see people outside waiting on the steps.

Leeds: 5 to midnight - Flixbus to London Victoria. It arrived in London at 6.25am (It went all over the place.. The midlands, and, Heathrow airport . and took 6 and a half hours, but that meant I did not have to find a hotel for the night)

Walk along past Chelsea Pensioners Place and Chelsea Physic Garden to the Embankment - where I took photos of lichens - e.g. Xanthoria calcicola. London is very pleasant at 7 in the morning.  

 

London Victoria - via the white cliffs of Dover, and The Ferry to Calais. On the Ferry I bought a carton of chips and tomato ketchup for c £5-50 and refrained from buying a bottle of Harrogate Spring Water for £2-50.  The roads  on both sides of the channel, but especially in Kent had often calcicolous plants on the verges, lots of big yellow composites. The bus station in Paris was - Bercy Seine - A bus station next to the River Seine arriving at 8pm. 

           Walk (eventually) over two bridges over the Seine. The Barcelona bus was not due to leave until 10.30pm.  I couldn't actually walk beside the Seine because this was the evening before the grand opening of the Paris Olympics - and heavily armed gendarmes and soldiers were guarding points beside the river. (They did not seem amused at my request to photograph them.)  I photographed some lichens on the bridge. Pont de Bercy. I returned over the footbridge at the Bibliotheque Fancois Mitterand. There was a group doing samba dancing. I was a warm evening, as it got dark, lights came on. It was really quite romantic.. Pity I was by myself. 

Paris Bercy 10.30 to Barcelona Sants (Main railway station) c midday. I dozed a bit as we hurtled south down the motorway. The we went to some higher land to the next service place. Dawn was breaking.. I think the rocks were really acid now. There was scrub and rocks and a deep valley that we descended. Several of the peaks had a cross on the top of them. Is this the central massif? .. not quite sure where we were.

 I wasn't sure whether to get off at Barcelona Nord (the main Bus station) or Barcelona Sants, (the main railway station) so stayed on to the latter. There were lots of traffic lights and a grid system of roads so progress between the two was slow.  (Having got to know the city over two days, maybe Barcelona Nord would have been just as good - it was certainly 

I spent two days in Barcelona (that deserves a separate blog post.. including watching bits of the Paris Opening Ceremony whilst I was at the excellent Bike and Bed Hostel ) I did look for lichens but could not find any in those two days.. Too polluted?. 

Maria then kindly met me on the Sunday and gave me a lift to Espluga de Francoli to our hotel where we arrived c 5.30pm  (I would otherwise have taken the local train)

 We stayed Sunday to Sunday at  a lovely hotel called Hostal del Senglar. The first night was the  town's annual Fire Celebration  .. but that can be written up elsewhere

During the week we travelled in people's cars.

--------------------

Return:

7am: depart Hotel by foot with Patrick of the Lichens groups who was returning to Germany, from the Hotel to the Railway station - c 1km 

7.45 train from Espluga  to - Barcelona Sants (main Train station) -c 9.45.

 A pleasant Day in Barcelona - a walking with Patrick  then getting a taxi together to the (new) Botanic Garden - where at last I saw some lichens in Barcelona - incl Xanthoria calcicola.  - There were welcome water taps in the garden where I could refil my water bottle - or pour water over my head and face - it was midday and getting very hot. then sat by the water feature in the garden in the shade of a tree..and Patrick left to sight-see. In the afternoon I went to Joan Miro Foundation, a famous modern art painter, which was nice and cool.  I was educated in culture. There was also a sobering film about an unexploded bomb in Vietnam left from the Vietnam War, juxtaposed with film of an aeroplane being loaded with and  dropping bombs from the Vietnam War

6.30pm Barcelona Nord (the bus station) caught Blablacar bus to Paris - and arrived at Paris at Avenue Daumesnil  and Palace de Vincennes at c 9am. 

Here it was very hot, but a nice place because it was trees and parkland. The part near where I had to wait for the next bus had lots of calcicolous wildflowers. I photographed some lichens on the limestone or cement walls round the (dry moat) of the Palace de Vincennes.

12 midday - left Paris, via Calais, the ferry with its carton of chips of £5-00  and saw the white cliffs of Dover - with its Craven Door Snail - and arrived at London Victoria at 9.15pm.

Here I worked out I could catch a Megabus up to Leeds at 9.30pm and rushed to do this. In the end it did not start till 10.45, (because the driver legally had to have a rest) - but that was fine because I did not want to arrive in Leeds too early.  The Megabus upstairs was very comfortable. and arrived at Leeds c 3.30am. 

I walked slowly through the lamplit streets to the Railway station. I met a man who had come back from Pakistan in order to visit his father who was not well. We sat in the Railway station, he waiting for the 5am to Bradford, I waiting for the 5.15 to Carlisle.

Leeds 5.15- Settle 6.20. I used their Leeds station ticket machine. A bargain Senior fare today so it was only £5-00 to Settle - but then discovered my Senior Railcard had expired a week ago - so had to buy a new one for £30-00. 

 In Settle I wheeled my case to Lamberts the Stationers, where the lady sorting newspapers let me leave my luggage. 

I walked home by 7am, and returned by car to Settle to collect my luggage. Safely home. 

Later I will add up the fares. I had paid £195 single Leeds to Barcelona - whereas I see if I had booked ahead AND it had not been the night before the Olympics it is possible  to get tickets for c £80-00 

(I don't really think now it was worth the extra for paying to book seats., but that was only a few pounds) 

Then there is the price of food - which I had partially avoided by packing sandwiches. - c £9 on the ferry both ways; c £10-00 for water or drinks both ways. In fact I did not buy much food - It was so hot outside, and I was just sitting on the bus, - Just some expensive (£4-00) biscuits both ways. The "Indian spice flavoured tuna salad" from Settle "Trevors market shop" did me well, and a three week still-edible old cake I had found in the boot of my car.

(I did spend quite a lot of money - a very lot  in Barcelona - both on my two day stay at the beginning of the visit and my 8 hour satay on the way back - but I am not counting that. .. )

 I met a few interesting people on the way - A lady from ?Tanzania with her nephew going from Holland to visit relatives in Spain. A man of African descent going to visit his daughter in Paris. I am becoming more aware that each Africa Country now has its own own diaspora.  A clued up young lady from Pakistan on the MSc course at Glasgow on Security, was returning with fellow students to Glasgow on the Megabus from a visit to London. However because I had managed to get a double seat on most of the bus sections,  there was no-one to talk to.  (and I didn't speak Spanish/Catalan) And much of the travel was overnight.

Well I have lots of photographs to sort. I will enjoy reflecting on my travels.

And .. in the two weeks since the trip.. dozens of jobs have piled up.

 

 

     

Watlowes, Ligustrum and joyous crimson purple plants of August

 Garden Privet (Ligustrum ovatum) is now in flower (or just finishing) in Settle (e.g. at Railway bridge near Victoria Hall). How is it different from Wild Privet (Ligustrum vulgare)? 

Stace says of the Wild Privet: :1-year-old stems and panicle branches densely puberulous (i.e. with very short hairs) ;  leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, narrowly acute.

Garden privet: young stems and branches glabrous.  leaves usually elliptic, acute to rounded at apex.

So,  on Sat 10 Aug I set off to look for the one Wild Privet bush I know find out.. On the dry waterfall in Watlowes Valley.

And yes,  the branches in the wild privet are puberulous

Ligustrum vulgare - Wild Privet
It was not in flower - but then when I have noticed it before it has been in the early part of the flowering season (June), not August.

Here is some Garden Privet from the railway bridge near Victoria Hall for contrast:- (with a bit of alga growing on its leaf)

As I started to descend from Comb Scar Down to Waltlowes I noticed this lovely patch of Welted Thistle  Carduus crispus. Carduus species have simple hairs in the pappus (unlike Cirsium species - eg. Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre) and Creeping thistle (Cirsium repens)- thistles with heads of a similar size, and so confusable - but which have feathery pappus hairs).

Welted thistle has stems that are continuously spiny winged up to or nearly up to the capitula. . It grows in hedgerows, streams sides a,d rough ground especially on rich or basic soils.  well this is rough and basic ground.

bit by bit I shall add more pictures  to tell you more of my visit., and the other purple flowers  and of distractions by butterflies, snails, fossils and of course lichens...

The Hypogymnia physodes lichen on the sign post

The Clausilia sp snail on Caloplaca cirrochroa lichen

Caloplaca cirrochroa

A Northern Brown Argus butterfly I think
(initially perched on a Sesleria caerulia grass flowerhead)

A Northern Brown Argus butterfly I think

Orpine -  Hylotelephium (formerly Sedum) telephium  This is a flower that is only just coming out on 10 August.
https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.7mm2n8

Orpine -Hylotelephium (Sedum) telephium 

Lepraria nivalis