20 Friday Jan 2023
I’ve seen this lichen described as a fanfare of trumpets, which is just the most perfect description for a lichen that can be found adorning the branches and trunks of trees throughout the year almost everywhere in Britain. Meet Ramalina fastigiata.
26 Tuesday Nov 2019
‘There is a low mist in the woods—It is a good day to study lichens. The view so confined—it compels your attention to near objects—& the white background reveals the disks of the lichens distinctly—They appear more loose-flowing—expanded—flattened out—the colors brighter—for the damp—The round yellowish green lichens on the white pines loom through the mist (or are seen dimly) like shields—whose devices you would fain read.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau, A Year in Thoreau’s Journal 1851, Penguin, New York, 1993
11 Monday Dec 2017
Tags
bryophytes, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, lichen on trees, lichens, mosses, mosses on trees
Over the summer months my eye has been distracted by all the little creatures that move – butterflies and moths, dragonflies and beetles, and all manner of other insects – but now that it’s winter and those creatures have mostly disappeared (you’ll notice one crept in to one of my photos!), my eye is again drawn to the more static beauty that surrounds me. Take, for example, this small grove of trees at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.
I spent perhaps an hour here the other day, looking in wonder at the incredible variety of tiny lichens and bryophytes to be found on the tree trunks. I haven’t tried to identify these but I’m determined to return to them over the coming months to see which I can put names to and find out more about. For now, I just want to share their beauty.
30 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in lichen, nature, nature photography
Though lichens are generally intolerant of pollution, this vibrant yellow and orange beauty is an exception and is even tolerant of heavy metal contamination. Its common names include common orange lichen, yellow scale, maritime sunburst lichen and shore lichen, from which you might correctly deduce that Xanthoria parietina is just as common on a rock at the seaside as it is on a tree in the city. It is also something of a globetrotter, being found throughout Britain and most of Europe, in North America, Africa and Asia, as well as in Australia.
Working from the belief that a plant could treat a disease it most looked like, medieval herbalists used Xanthoria parietina to treat jaundice because of its yellow colour, and scientific research has since shown that it has potent antiviral properties. And, given the intense yellow and orange colours of this lichen, it’s probably no surprise to learn that it has also been used as a dye. It is, for example, one of the traditional plant materials used to dye wool in the Scottish highlands and islands, though the colour it produces is brown, not yellow.
22 Friday Jan 2016
Posted in lichen, nature, nature photography
I keep thinking I see letters of the alphabet in these photographs as if this lichen is trying to tell me something but I can’t quite make out the message!
Though I’m finding lichens quite difficult to identify, even with my newly acquired guide charts, I’m fairly sure this is Lecanora chlarotera, a very common and widespread British lichen. As it will tolerate moderate amounts of air pollution, it can frequently be seen on the twigs and trunks of young semi-urban tree plantings, of the sort you might see around a shopping centre. It is also found in sparsely planted woodlands, where it benefits from more light than a densely planted forest would provide.
The lichen’s base colour ranges from cream to pale grey, it varies in texture from smooth to what one website describes as ‘strongly warted … like lumpy porridge’, and its apothecia (the little saucer-shaped fruiting bodies) range in colour from pale beige to a rusty brown. As with most lichens, you have to look closely to see how pretty it is.
earthstar 
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