Lichens near Foredale Farm - mid north side of SD8069 - 3 May 2025

The route of the old road to Foredale Farm, bounded by two drystone walls, was left when the newer tarmac road to the quarry was built many years ago.

Penyghent seen in the distance. 

This made a nice place to sample lichens as the old route is now grass covered.  The walls, whilst constructed mostly of siliceous rocks, had a few limestone stones in them, and the sun shone.

Here are some lichens I found. I really wish I had taken a photo of the farmer on the quadbike with the sheep and lambs too.

This is Xanthoria calcicola (also in the top picture) which has a very warty thallus and is bright orange with a slightly more yellow bright margin. It does not usually fruit, but this one has apothecia.

I am calling this Diploschistes muscorum. It has urn-shaped apothecia - They seem very small in this specimen but maybe they are young.  

Close up

The very small apothecia  in the small thalli on this rounded sandstone rock in the wall turned purple with K. I call this species Caloplaca holocarpa sensu stricta.  It is a distinctive species 

Another jolly patch of Xanthoria calcicola. Xanthoria calcicola is rare around here

 in this Settle hectad. 

But I think I have seen in the Mersey embankment, on the Thames Embankment, on the Wall beside the Seine and in the botanic garden at Barcelona..( I  just need to double check.)

Dermatocarpon miniatum - Although it is growing on a sliceous rock there are odd limestone rocks in the wal, and also this wall is a hundred me or so from the old long since discues limestone quarry processing plant when there would have been lots of limestone dust.  I had put a bit of water on this very dry lichen.

Collema fuscovirens

The bedrock showing in the track is an anticline. 
It has some Lecanora muralis growing on it 

Another jolly patch of Xanthoria calcicola. Xanthoria calcicola is rare around here

 in this Settle hectad. 

But I think I have seen in the Mersey embankment, on the Thames Embankment, on the Wall beside the Seine and in the botanic garden at Barcelona..( I  just need to double check.)

 

2 May 2025: Lichens in SD8069

I would like to send in my Lichen results to the British Lichen Society for the first ten monads of my hectad SD86 (from Rathmell to here- Helwith Bridge)  but somehow I did not write up my results for this monad to locations to a precision better than SD8069.

So this is a good excuse to resurvey parts of SD8069 the Helwith Bridge aquare.

So I set off on the evening of the 2nd May 2025.

The geology here is well studied and very interesting - with folded 450 MYR old siliceous rocks at the bottom (Silurian and Ordovician) and an  unconformity with  a 100 MYR gap and  then Carboniferous Limestone on top (actually the limestone is just into the next monad and hectad to the west).

The rocks at the bottom have been quarried for many years at Helwith Bridge Quarry

The names of these rocks seem to change EVEN FASTER than Lichen names. I would, at  O level 50 years ago, have called these "Silurian slates" - I like the alliteration.   Then I was told they were "Greywackes" which is sandstone formed when sandy deltas slipped down into the sea and the pressure metamorphosed the sandstone. Then last week I was told it was part metamorphosed siltstone.  The British Geol Survey this week calls it "Horton Formation - Siltstone. Sedimentary bedrock formed between 427.4 and 425.6 million years ago during the Silurian period.".. And Says the old name "Horton Flags"  is now obsolete. And the rock next to it is  Austwick Formation Sandstone (Silurian Period) Map 

Anyway it is siliceous rock. 

I took this to be Porpidia macrocarpa

View from site towards Penyghent

 

Some sort of Cladonia. there was a lot of C subcervicornis around.

Normandina pulchella on moss (Hypnum maybe cupressiforme) on sloping rock outcrop at ground level

Ptilidium ciliare and Peltigera membranceaea

See other lichens posts

Climate Walk 1 May 2-25 Brockhole Lane , Settle to Cleatop Park Wood

People from Craven Conservation Group (CCG), Churches Together in Settle and the public came on this walk - 15 in total. We planned to set off at 10am and a Wildflower Exercise Walk 

this counts as a "Climate Walk"; A CCG walk - A "31 Days Wild" walk,  a Lichen Walk and  a Wildflower Exercise Walk 

Brockhole Lane: 3/4 mile long, a stonewall bordered bridleway with baserich soils,, with delightful wayside / woodland  flowers.  These plants can flower unlike the grazed sheep pastures on either side.

We are so lucky to have this resource in Settle.

1/2 mile upward through a grazed pasture (avoiding a cow and very young calf)

3/4 mile uphill through woodland on millstone grit with a flora that likes acid soil.

A view/ rest on big limestone boulders and outrops in acid grassland at the top ( a slight detour) and a spelndid view of Settle

Return through pastures higher up the slope and down to the start of Brockhole Lane.

Detour 1: The Age-UK Allotment - At Dog Meadow Allotment

In the foregound centre left is a hole- steps go down to running water whichis a culvert - so gardeners come here to get water.

Age UK have a splendid allotment. You can come here on Fridays and help I think of just have a chat - but check up with AgeUK first 01729 823066 or e-mail info@ageuknorthcraven.org It says Wed and Fri on their website but they don' do Wednesdays any more.

 

We set off

i was pleased to see there is still some water in Watery Lane (in spite of the fact the River Level at the Lochs Measuring gauge was down to 2mm. (NB 5 days later it is recording -1cm), We wil be coming here with Settle Eco Explorers tomorrow.

The special Town Hall Clock - Adoxa moschatellina

By 11.45 (1/2 mile walk) we had recorded over 20 plants. Three people had to return to Settle for meetings.

By c. 12 30 WE had walked 3/4 mile and recorded almost 40 species of plant in flower (I am waiting for the list from Geoff).

Four more people had to return home. That left about 7 of us.

 

 We walked across two pastures and uphill towards Cleatop Park Wood. We had Lunch in the Woodland Trust area below Cleatop Park Wood.

This area is all on grit rock 

We looked at all the Trees the Woodland Trust had planted.  

The trees do seem very densely planted. I do hope they will thin some of them out.

The bench had gone.

(I enjoyed having a break at this bench during my Coid year visit.

I was pleased to refind the Tree with the lichen Lecanactis abietina grwoing on it, about 50m up from the start of the wood.

We met a bird watcher and he showed us a pond area  in the wood that he said had been good for frogs ten years ago, but that had silted up now.

We saw the Climbing Corydalis growing by the path a bit uphill from this. It is too early for it to be in full flower. Here is a bit in bud.

That meant we had seen a total of five species of plant in flower in the wood: Bluebell (loads), Wood Sorrel (a few), Climbing Corydalis near the top end, Oak, Common Sedge. And that's it.

Four people now walked ahead to get back to Settle.

That left Geoff and Richard and I who enjoyed sitting down at the summit 

I took a photo of this fly sunning itself on a rock beside us, and the picture came out well, so I am showing it. It looks like Sarcophaga carnaria. Michael chinery;'s "Collins Guide to #Insects" says:-One of several very similar species with large feet and red eyes. Size is very variable. Common around houses but not often inside. Breeds in carrion, female bringing forth young larvae instead of eggs.

I was delighted to find a new lichen for my tetrad - a species of Cetraria.

Probably Cetraria aculeata but it could be C muricata.

THe view behind is us very good: - looking towards Ingleborough on the left and Pen y Ghent on the right.

After this it was a two mile return walk to Settle.

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