Climate Walk 1 April 2025: Pen y Ghent - Purple saxifrage and Solorina saccata

 Our initial plans had been to go to Leighton Moss by Public transport (train) but as the key member for this was unable to come and the weather forecast was so good (a big yellow sun) we decided to go up Pen y Ghent. As we knew who was coming and we were relatively fit we climbed up the short steep path from Dale Head.  Phil, Phil and I.  (In 2022 a larger group of us had walked up the long slow way..)

I took my copy of Mike Berners-Lee's "A Climate of Truth" with me to show the others.

It was very, very, very windy so I did not explore off the path.  I took my red Christmas Pudding woolly hat off and put it in my pocket to prevent it blowing away. I just hoped the wind would not blow my glasses off and away high into the sky and over to Ingleborough.

At the summit we chatted with a group of students one of whom took our photos from all directions

The path at the top down the main route that had once been a very wide stretch of pebbles, almost scree, has now been replaced by steps, and the exposed pebbles and soil have grassed over.

  

Over the other side as we started to drop down to the limestone ridge along the main public footpath, we were suddenly in the shelter and it was sunny and warm.

We looked at plants - found the Purple Saxifrage and lots of  Mossy Saxifrage leaves. I took a photo of the lichen Solorina saccata growing next to the Purple Saxifrage.  

In the distance I saw a group of people. "I wonder if they are botanists?" I thought. But I was too lazy to go across and ask. I wish I had done now because it turns out I think they were a group of people I actually know.

Moral: Be curious, don't be lazy.

Then we walked down.  down. down. I was very grateful to Phil for lending me her stick to add to my own stick... so that I had 2 sticks for Nordic walking. I was still the slowest walker.  Oh my knees..

We called in at Hunt Pot where there were primroses on the slope.

Phil encouraged us to keep up our walking pace... If the bus at Horton to Settle was a few minutes late there would be a chance we could catch it..  "Keep walking" he said.

And we did catch it!!  "Thank you Mr Bus driver."

It took us back to Langcliffe (home) where we got into my car and drove back up to Dalehead to collect Phil's car.

So we used public transport after all.

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Phil and Phil are keen to get an itinerary for the months ahead.  Do you have any suggestions where we should go for future 1st of the month's walks?- They can be long ones like this or short gentle ones.

1st  May is to be along Watery Lane (Brockhole Lane) to Cleatop Park Wood which will have lots of Bluebells.

And later in the year we may make it to Silverdale/Leighton Moss.

See other Climate Walks 

Lichens of Ingleborough

Paper by Allan Pentecost and Mark Seaward in April's edition of the YNU "The Naturalist" - Journal of Natural History for the north of England 

on

 "Lichens and lichenicolous fungi of Ingleborough Hill and its immediate surroundings." 25 pages long.

I was delighted to receive this the day before I attended the  British Lichen Society's week long spring meeting in Wales (at Plas Caerdeon, between Dolgellau and Barmouth) and was able to show everyone at the meeting the journal and article I had just received.

Both Allan and Mark are former presidents of the British Lichen Society.

Allan has been visiting Ingleborough a lot over the past few years and I went on two walks with him in the lower slopes of Ingleborough - one in the west, one on the east.

Andrea his wife supplied the photo of Ingleborough for the front cover - taken from an unusual view.

Mark has done a lot of research into finding early records of lichens. It is impressive how some "Rainforest Species" have been found here in the past - including Lobaria and Nephroma. and Pannaria rubiginosa. Alpine species were seen near the summit. It is very useful to see what species were recorded in the past.

The rainforest species are not there now. The mill towns around Bradford and Lancashire, and maybe sulphur dioxide from chimneys from power stations in the last century have had their effect.

I ran a walk for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust / Wild Ingleborough project in 2023 introducing people to Lichens. .. potentially billed as Yorkshire's Lost Rainforest  . Colt Park Wood does get enough rain (just) to classify as an Atlantic Rainforest area.  The rainforest species don't grow here now due to pollution in the last couple of centuries - but it is good to see in this paper reports of records showing that a few species did once grow here.

 I visited Ingleborough twice with Allan when he was carrying out surveys for this project. Once when I was pleased to find Peltigera leucophlebia on the hillside above Bleak Bank Farm (famous locally from the channel 4 TV series with the Dawson family). The second time we walked from Horton via Sulber and above Thieves Moss when Allan showed me Placynthium garovaglii

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They say

"377 taxa have been recorded of which 34 taxa have not been seen since the 19th century and a further 18 taxa are doubtful in the absence of herbarium material" So I suppose that means 325 species have been recorded.

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The picture on the back cover of the magazine show the people at the YNU conference at York this March with over 100 people. I took the photo!  It was a good conference.

A lichen I was shown on a trip up Ingleborough below Sulber is

Placynthium garovaglii  

There are two upcoming BLS Week long Field Meetings in the north of England:   In Autumn 2025  at Hebden Bridge;

in 2026 maybe in the Eden Valley (in Cumbria, but bordering Yorkshire.)

The YNU has a field meeting in Kingsdale on Yorkshire Naturalists Union visit to Kingsdale Head Farm above Ingleton.

Find out more about the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union here.

Find out more about the British Lichen Society here.

Eventually I might write one or two posts about the BLS trip to North Wales. The previous post to this describes P horrescens

See more posts on this website about lichens

Hypotrachyna-horrescens in Woods at Tan-y-Bwlch

The BLS Spring meeting this 2025 is based at Plas Caerdeon outdoor adventure centre near Barmouth. 

On Monday - Day 2 the group visited  Coed Hafod y Llyn (Tan y Bwlch Centre buildings are here) (Tan-y-Bwlch railway station is the principal intermediate passenger station on the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway, which was built in 1836 to carry dressed slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog for export by sea,)

Hypotrachyna horrescens (used to be called Parmelinopsis horrescens ) could be confused with Parmotrema crinitum - They both have Parmelia-like pale grey thalli. and some black cilia on the upper srface (like Desperate Dan's bristle. But H horrescens is smaller - lobes 1- and P crinitum has lobes to 15mm wide,3mm wide  P. horrescens medulla is k- and the cortex is k yellow. P crinitum medulla is K orange.

See more posts on this website about lichens

Rhizocarpon geographicum (Map Lichen) at Linton Churchyard

I am running a two  hours "Lichens for Beginners Walk" at Linton Church on Saturday 7 June 2025  starting at 9.15am. -   Details here

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I associate the fluorescent yellow green of this crustose lichen with slates of the Lake District and North Wales. It is said to be a lichen which which grows on rocks in mountainous areas of low air pollution However it does grow on acid rocks in this part of Yorkshire too, and its colour makes it stand out.

There is a patch on this buttress near the church porch. 

Rhizocarpon has been put outside a space station in outer space, suffering no atmosphere and intense radiation - and on return to earth was able to continue growing. This is an example of an extremophile

The lichens were subjected to the vacuum of space and to temperatures ranging from -20°C on the night side of the Earth, to 20°C on the sunlit side. They were also exposed to glaring ultraviolet radiation of the Sun.

The green parts of the thallus (like little islands - called areoles- contain the mixture of algae and fungi. The black lines between them, and thick at the edge are just fungus - called prothallus.

This is a picture of the thallus (lichen body) enlarged . I showed this to the Lichen Chat and Improvement Group and they said that the black splodges are a fungal infection.  

Judith at Helwith Bridge/Foredale pointing
to the Rhizocarpon geographicum
on the Ordovician / Silurian rocks near the Quarry

Here is a link to a post  including Rhizocarpon geographicum on this blog

Lichens at Lofthouse - Report of the Moorland Festival Workshop  Oct 2017

Other Lichen Posts