Low Bentham Churchyard - Hairy Earthtongues, Waxcaps, Increase in Dog Lichen (Peltigera hymenina)

It is Fri 11 Nov 

Exactly two years ago - on 12 Nov 2020 - Doris and I visited Low Bentham Churchyard of St John the Baptist Church. She was investigating whether to do a few paintings of flowers in the grounds for Revd Tim Fox and the people of the Church.

This little strip of mown grassy burial ground with its sombre dark green conifers, set between the scattered tree bordered River Wenning, and the narrow quiet country road with pastureland beyond is constantly revealing new secrets.  The land extends downstream with a narrower strip of unmown grassland. (Past secrets:-

1.  Visit with Doris in Nov 2020 (still to write this up -including Lichens and Earthstar- see end of this article)

2. Visit in March 2021 to look at Lichens

3. Visit in May 2021 just before Churchyard Week with Sharon, Peter Flint and Doris looking at Insects.

4. June 2021 Wildflower Churches Count on Nature Walk with people from the church 

Todays finds:-

1. How Peltigera hymenina has increased in cover.

2. Waxcaps including "The Ballerina" or Pink Waxcap

3. Lots of Earthtongues.. O just looked closely and discover they are Hairy Earthtongues!!

4. Other fungi

5. Revisit to Oak Tree.

6. Brief reunion with David and Tim Fox.

Note on current weather - 1. The weather by 11 November 2022 is still very mild - Though  there was just one frosty night a week ago.- The church lies in a valley and cold air sinks down into it - hillsides may have missed the frost. 2. Remember we had a drought over summer.

Peltigera hymenina:

Our November 2020 visit was an early outdoor trip in the open air, at the end of the first Covid Year.  We recorded plants then and I recorded lichens.  I remember finding Peltigera hymenina in one place on some shallow soil near two gravestones and in the partial shade of conifer trees, west of but quite close to the church. That was the only place I found it then, or at least the only place of note.

I notice in our June 2021 visit that I found it in another place.

This time - November 2022 I couldn't get over how much there is of it. There is some near the wall at the SE corner of the churchyard.. beyond the grassy place where I found some earthtongues.

But in the main grassy area to the west of the church in various places always on the raised part of the graves (where the lawn mower might have mown closer)  there is lots of the dog lichen.

How has it increased so much in two years?  Maybe the drought over summer has knocked the grass back? Maybe it is easily propagated with the grass mower.

Peltigera hymenina-2020

Specially taken to show Peltigera hymenina-2020

The next pictures are from 2022:

Peltigera hymenina-2022

Peltigera hymenina-2022

Peltigera hymenina-2022 - and Pink Waxcap

This leads us on to..

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

2. Waxcaps.

Indeed my main aim had been to come and look for waxcaps. (And a dot for our visit is now recorded on the map here.. click and go down the page at this site Yorkshire NEYEDC survey 2022-2024)

Surveys have been carried out on Waxcaps and a group of fungi that grow in unimproved grassland (i.e. not fertilized or reseeded) called CHEGD fungi

Some background papers include: ( CIEEM site CHEGD fungi by Penny Anderson  - CHEGD fungi include Fairy Clubs (C), waxcaps (H), Pink Gills (E), Earthtongues (G) and Crazed Caps (Dermoloma - very rare - (D)  Peak District.gov Report -Yorkshire NEYEDC survey 2022-2024)

 We found Parrot Waxcap and Snowy Waxcap .. and Earthtongue  and The Ballerina  one tiny Golden Spindle 

Parrot Waxcap 
Gliophorus (formerly Hygrocybe) psittacinus

Some rather "past it" Parrot waxcaps

Slimy Waxcap - I did find some more.
Gliophorus (formerly Hygrocybe) irrigatus - grey with slimy cap and slimy stipe 

The distinctive Ballerina or Pink Waxcap had to be photographed:

Pink Waxcap at Low Bentham Church

3. Earth tongues

These seemed wider than the usual earthtongues I see, and quite  a few of them were forked. When I looked closely - i.e. with a decent lens or microscope - I could see they have hairs.

Ah - these are Trichoglossum hirsutum (Hairy Earthtongue) - Not Geoglossum cookeanum (Earthtongue)

Earthtongues - mostly to the SW of the church. 

Look closely. is this the Hairy Earth-tongue?

4. Some other fungi.

Well definitely an Agaricus - under a tree - a conifer - well yes you can see the leaves on the right.
Maybe Agaricus langei - Scaly Wood Mushroom but could be others.

Laccaria laccata The Deceiver.

Lichens on the Oak Tree

FinallyI noticed the young oak tree with good lichens is still there. The good leafy and foliose lichens on its branches are looking rather tired and green alga covered, and the Metsgeria violacea is still there (a thallose liverwort that grows well in N  polluted areas)

The good young oak tree was still there but its foliose and fruticose lichens looked really coated in green algae.

By chance we met the church warden who looks after the grounds - David Channing. He had come to meet Rev Tim Fox to do some work in the grounds. David showed me yet more fungi.

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

Below are some pictures from 2020

1. Pictures from 2020

12 Nov 2020

Earth Star in 2020

Earth Star location in 2020. We could not see one in 2022

More on 11 Nov - trip to Ingleton for Covid Jab and Meal at The Falls Bar and Kitchen

Trip to Ingleton and Low Bentham Church: to keep things in context.. and see distractions of the day.. 

It is 11  November 2022, the day before Sat 12 November which is day of action about Climate change - COP27 - the Climate COP is underway in Egypt.

Main aim of Friday:- to get my covid and flu jabs at Ingleton 10 miles away - where they have an efficient friendly walk in system at the Community Centre. (It would give me Saturday to recover.) My friend Zoe would be on duty that morning.

 As I drove into Settle (on the way to Ingleton)  at 11 am, the radio announced that it was 11am of the 11th day of the 11th month.  Oh. I parked my car abruptly just beyond the cenotaph and was able to stand at the edge whilst a little crowd - mostly representatives from the primary school -  held a short service at the War Memorial (There will be a much bigger crowd on Sunday).

I proceeded to Ingleton Community Centre Car Park where volunteers in yellow jackets showed me where to park.

Ah, there would be just time for me to nip down to the Methodist Coffee Morning at Ingleton Church - a chance to support them since some of them often come to Settle. I marched in at 11.29 - a tad  inconveniently for them I suppose, since I discovered it finished at 11.30, but the remaining four people made me very welcome and gave me coffee and biscuits.  One lady was a very fit 92.

Outside I met a young lady (originally form Latvia) who, like me last year, had followed directions to the pharmacy, not to the Community Centre. I cheerfully showed her the way and we walked up to the centre.

The system worked well. I saw several other friends also queueing.  A man cheerfully stuck a needle in my left arm, then I turned round  and he stuck a needle in the right arm.

I phoned Doris who was in, and went round to see her. We decided to go out to lunch and went to the Falls Bar and Kitchen - i.e. The Ingletorn Waterfalls trail cafe newly refurbished.  - - American style bistro. Doris had had a "take away leaflet" delivered through the door recently  - Link to facebook

Doris had cauliflower fritters (a snack) and salad and I had "Loaded Fries" with butternut squash chilli jalapenos cheddar and sour cream.  (and some of Doris salad). Link to menu

Then we set of for Low Bentham Churchyard - See next blogpost.

Sphagnum - Peat Exhibition at the Folly, Settle - and a bite to eat at their café

Give Peat a chance and other Exhibitions at the The Folly  now till 23 Dec. Tue-Sats  11-4pm

Please all you people who go for a wonderful meal at the Folly Café
- and please all of you who visit  Settle Tues-Sat when the museum is open -
Go to the top floor of the Folly and look at the exhibition on "Give Peat a chance" - on  Peat and Sphagnum.- just opened, with a square meter Sphagnum garden. " at The Folly  If you go, note: there are magnifying glasses and a chart of species on the wall.  And whilst you are there on the stairs see the "All our Land" project and on the 1st floor the ACE Settle display on The Climate Emergency. The Folly

This photo was taken in 2017 the week the café opened

Another visit to the café

 

Climate Walk 1 Oct 2022 : Fungi, wildlife, trees and prayers for the Amazon - at Scaleber Foss, Old Settle and Settle Parish Church

How are local wildlife (around Settle), climate change and the survival of the human species linked?

This may see a very "local" post - but I am amazed as I put up these posts how quickly the world is changing - and at an accelerating rate.

Pholiota: Scaly-cap (or maybe Gymnopilus)

Green Wood-cup - Chlorosplenium aeruginascens  (young cups c 5mm)

On the first of the month at Settle a walk is held and the sheets from the "Pray and Fast for the Climate site (a UK website)" are used. Last night (30 Sept) I emailed the producer of the prayer/info sheet and asked to be sent it a day early so that I could print it out. The draft sheet was emailed to me and can be read here.  (The final sheet will be put up on their website sometime soon, but it often misses the first day of the month so I am very grateful it was sent to me early)

The prayer for today included a section about the election in Brazil taking place tomorrow 2 October. In  the few years that the current president has been in power vast amounts of the Amazon forest have been destroyed, as he encouraged people to remove the forest. (Crazy. And O so sad)  

Brazil’s election
On Sunday, October 2^nd, Brazilians will elect their president. The election, which is being contested by the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been described as one of the most significant elections in the world for the climate. During his time in office, Bolsonaro has presided over a sharp increase in deforestation, and analysis done for Carbon Brief and based on the two candidates’ stated policies and actions, suggests that a win for Lula could reduce Amazon rainforest loss by over 75,000 km2.  Please pray for wisdom for all who are voting – and that whoever wins, the Brazilian government will take action to preserve its forests. 

Losing this forest (I was informed over 30 years ago, at a Right Livelyhood Award Ceremony in Bradford - when JOSÉ  LUTZENBERGER  - 1988 received the award  ) can upset the currents in the Atlantic Ocean - and if we lose the Gulf Stream,  Britain will become a much, much colder place. 

(Whilst the rest of the world will get hotter) - 

Also, Climate change from increased CO2 and methane and other greenhouse gases will give increased heat  which  will mean that crops cannot be grown so by 2050 lots of people will be starving and coming into northern countries as climate refugees.

It is only now (2022) as Pakistan floods and storms with 150mph winds in Florida that the BBC and newspapers are beginning to talk seriously about climate change. I am heartened to hear lots of good programs now on the radio .. But why could we not have had them 10 years ago?

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

I write these blog posts - mostly about nature - but it is amazing look back - at the rate of change of opinion. So that is heartening.

Back to our walk.

I went to the meeting point in Settle but no-on turned up.  

Two people are on holiday, one person is going on the "Visit different faiths walk" at Bradford (excellent - I recommend it) , two more couples looked at the weather (wind and showers and slippery on the ground) and said they would give it a miss, and also said 9.30 was rather an early time to start.

In some ways I was relieved - I had actually printed out a risk assessment for this walk - broken branches dues to the strong wind, slippery ground and a big drop at Scalebar Foss, and wet grass underfoot elsewhere

So I just went by myself (and arranged to meet three others later).

I had visited Scalebar a week earlier to check and knew there would be two fungi there. In fact I went to the same fallen tree at the top (did not go to the dangerous slope)  and found 5 fungi. It is worth recording this - just so that next year I can say how many extra fungi appeared in the week leading up to 1 Oct.

Shaggy cap - Pholiota

Green wood Chlorosplenium

Pleurotus

White Cap )need to look it up

White mycelium in log.

Orange jelly fungus

I also photographed a few mosses and lichens:

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

I went to my friends in Upper Settle. I was shown White Spindles in their garden. 

We sat on the seat in the adjacent play area and looked at the Climate Prayer sheets.

Two people walking up the steps past us agreed to take our photos  

With Fungi books and Sally's apple picker.

Sitting with Climate Prayer sheets, Fungi book and White Spindles.

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

We discussed the difficulty of getting younger people to join and hep run organisations - from Craven Conservation Group to Churches Together in Settle, from U3a to the Yorkshire Naturalists Union.

Maybe It is because young people spend so much time online that there is no time to do anything else.

(Digression - for my own education:
of Generation z spend so much time online that there are not any hours left in the day to do anything else. Generation Z is those born between 1997 and 2012 - i.e. 10 - 25 year olds.

Generation Y is those born between 1981 to 1996 - also known as Millennials, i.e. now aged 26 -41.

Generation x - 1961 to 1981

Baby boomers - born 1943 to 1960

Silent Generation – people born before and during the Second World War (1925 and 1942). They valued stability, sought after corporate jobs, and married early.
-----------------------------------------------------

 Sally and Keith told me they were going to support Settle Parish church's monthly fundraising lunch (Best: acronym for -Bacon, Sausage, Egg and Tomato butties) . sounded good.  I followed them down - but first

I made survey of trees in the churchyard and found the following starting from the lych gate and walking to the left. (counting.. 20 altogether including a few shrubs.

Elderberry (1), Bramble (2), Ash (3),  Yew(4),  Two unknown garden shrubs, Holly(5). Sycamore(6), Raspberry (7)

Corner near viaduct.

Privet (8), Ivy (9), Elm (10), Ash, Horse Chestnut (11), Elm, Goat Willow (?Hybrid?) (12), Laburnum (13), Lilac(14), Long leaved Cherry (15), Ash, Sycamore, Apple/pear (16), 

Corner (now at "step" between two parts of  the churchyard)  

Currant (17), Yew, Hawthorn (18), Silver Birch (19), 

Corner  

Two ornamental Cherry and Cypress(20) in centre  

Box (21), Holly (now next to Church)

 Horse chestnut,  Palm (22), 

Corner 

Holly, Cherry, Yew 

Lych gate. Path to Church:

Yews, Holly, Conifer.

I met a lady carrying some flowers to put on the grave of her mother and father. She had lived at Settle Junction till she was 8 and missed the railway. (The house had been pulled down since then).

I went in and had lunch - giving up my bacon in my hot sandwich as they were running short - and still felt guilty because of the sausage but thoroughly enjoyed it.

I met a couple of young, well youngish, people who were on the way up to Penrith as one of them was entering at Whinlatter  with their dog the race:-

https://www.timeoutdoors.com/events/lakeland-paws 

https://lakelandpaws.com/events/

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

Back home and sorting my pictures. Well, I must stop doing this now and print out some posters for the coffee morning we are holding at Church for the Rainforest Fund on Wednesday 5 October, so that they can display them at the Giggleswick and Settle Brass Band Concert Tonight.

Loreleia postii - A little orange toadstool that grows on a Liverwort - Marchantia polymorpha - at Giggleswick - plus lichens and fungi.

 Loreleia postii A fungus growing in association with a liverwort.

In 2017 on 28 October Craven Conservation Group went on a walk led by Archie McAdam (See the post written then) . As Doris and I (last) walked down the steep footpath beside the road from Giggleswick Chapel down to the Giggleswick Carpark we discovered a very few tiny orange fungi which Archie (after consultation with Roy Watkins) eventually told us were Loreleia postii - A fungus that gets its food from liverworts.

It is similar to another one called Loreleia marchantiae (The Liverwort Navel) 

I had been back a couple of years and not found them.

However on 21 Sept (my it's the equinox!) I fancied a walk and some fresh air - and drove to Giggleswick and was pleased to find about 10 tiny orange caps scattered up beside the path. More than last time. SD 8089764002 and SD8092264008

There is much less Marchantia now than there used to be. In 2017 it was more obvious that bare soil had been left when the gravel path had been laid and wooden fence had been erected, and the Marchantia polymorpha had spread over much of this bare soil. By 2022 grass is beginning to creep in. And moss (Didymodon sp?? still to be checked) is more abundant than Marchantia. However the Marchantia is still there, thinly scattered all the way along.

One large (3mm cap) 1/5 of the way up - near centre,
plus three more diagonally above and to the right

Down as this path enters the car park (and with no fungi) the Marchantia was fruiting and some was divided up like this:-

More notes: After this I walked to the good tree next to Mill Hill Lane  SD80936419 where I had found fungi in previous years but did not find any. It is too early.

Notes mostly to myself on lichens (SD84)

Then I walked across to Giggleswick Church - At the point where the path is enclosed by two old walls, 15 m from the churchyard perimeter I found this pale pinkish crustose lichen: It was growing on a smooth roundish Sandstone stone in the wall in several places. It was K- and C red. It has soredia

I wonder if it is Trapelia placodioides. I think so. 

Oh - I see I saw it with our "lichens for all Group" last month with Allan and Sue and Les on the Gritstone rocks near Craven Bank Lane on 6 Aug

Then I saw it at Harden Gill at Humberstone YNU Day on 14th August. -

Like London Buses - three in a row. 

I have entered it on my "List of species in SD 86" - I am up to 170 species

The wall has a "right mixture of stones" - It is lying exactly the fault line anyway!!

This I think is Porpida macrocarpa -  well the big black apothecia

This is Cladonia pyxidata

Cladonia pyxidata

Once in the churchyard I looked for fungi.  Although wildlife conservationists  ask for parts of the churchyard to be left unmown for the sake of insects and small mammals etc, I am really pleased that parts of it with the old grassland are still kept mown - not because it looks neat and tidy, but because some fungi do better here.  I only found three species - but they were all in the mown area. I might put them up later.

Although this one looks bright and cheerful here,
it is actually the Conical wax cap or Blackening wax cap and is one of the very few waxcaps that are inedible.  Hygrocybe conica

Hygrocybe conica - at NE corner of church

Hygrocybe conica

Two more species at lawn south of the church building that I am thinking about.