Four foliose and a fruticose

[JennyS]

I'll leave the crusty backlog ferment away on its own and post some lobed queries instead....... help, confirmation and/or corrections very appreciated!

1. A Stereocaulon but beyond that I'm stuck......forming a mat on the side of an acidic upland rock




2. Xanthoria, again on upland rock - very fertile parientia?




3. Physconia distorta? On either Salix or Alder in slightly marshy woodland




4. Physcia - P. tribacioides? Same location as above




5. Physcia again - but it looks very odd!

[AlanS]

1. I think this is most likely to be Stereocaulon evolutum, but I am still getting to know these. The shape of the 'phyllocladia' appears to be correct.

2. Yes, just Xanthoria parietina.

3. Physconia distorta would be my best guess too, but I have a photograph of something very similar, also lacking both apothecia and soredia, that I am not naming for certain until I get around to checking the rhizines.

4. Definitely not P. tribacioides, which is very rare in Britain (but might be less so in Ireland?). P. tribacioides lacks pseudocyphellae, very rarely has apothecia, and should have characteristic rounded soralia densely covering the centre of the colony. Your photograph shows pseudocyphellae, apothecia, and no soralia! It is either P. aipolia or P. stellaris - rather intermediate between the two and needs a chemical test (see next).

5. Likely to be P. aipolia, but the white flecks (pseudocyphellae) seem not to extend onto the younger lobes, so it may be P. stellaris. Dobson says that P. stellaris lacks pseudocyphellae, but various published photographs show rather indistinct pseudocyphellae on older parts of the thallus. Hinds & Hinds (The Macrolichens of New England*) discuss this and state that testing with potassium hydroxide is sometimes essential for certain identification (medulla yellow with KOH in P. aipolia, not reacting in P. stellata, but beware that both species give a yellow reaction in the overlying cortex, which must be scraped away first). So work on the voucher, if you have kept one, is needed.
The rather convoluted centre of the colony in your main photograph does match my own photograph of P. stellaris quite well (not yet on my site).


*Hinds & Hinds is one of my favourite books for tricky genera. The lichens of New England are evidently a very different set of species from those of 'Old' England, but some genera (e.g. Melanelia, Physcia, Cladonia) are much the same and are very well discussed, with excellent, clear photographs.


Alan

[JennyS]

Thanks for taking a look at those Alan, and for your comments on them

2. Xanthoria - thought it probably must be parientia.
The Xanthoria below is from a concrete post opposite a milk-processing factory....there was plenty of very fertile parientia there but is this bit X. candelaria?




3. I've a few different candidates for Physconia distorta from that location ...

Q1:

Q2:

Q3:


4. I should either stop trying to ID lichen at 2am when my brain has quit or stop trying to identify them entirely.....(could be better option, I'm starting to despair!)

5. I've found quite a few of these oddly intermediate ones, yes will have to test carefully

Thanks for the mention of Hinds & Hinds 'The Macrolichens of New England' ....... this has just turned into an expensive morning!

[AlanS]

Hi Jenny,

Oh yes, nice Physconia distorta pics.


As for your Xanthoria - are you sure the factory is processing milk?? and not nuclear waste???

It (the Xanthoria) is even producing apothecia from the eroded edges of the lobes.

I don't think it is Xanthoria candelaria, leastways not as now being interpreted, but it is plain weird. We have a few smaller and less well-known Xanthoria species and as I have accumulated some of the literature on them, I'll have a trawl through sometime, but not tonight.

Yes, Hinds and Hinds is a nice book, but it was expensive when I bought it last year, and with changes in exchange rates ...
N.B. It deals only with foliose and fruticose genera - no crusts!

Alan

[JennyS]

Dread to think what that factory is adding to the cheese it makes, but some of the Xanthoria opposite are stacking up in multi-piles of apothecia!
I'll be very interested to hear your comments once you've had a chance to check the literature you've got.

I looked at my bank balance and realised that Hinds will have to go on the 'wait for' list instead .....pity, a crust-less lichen book would have been quite a relief

[JennyS]

Just found a bigger photo of the weird Xanthoria - it looks very parientia at the edges .....

[AlanS]

Yes, I have to agree on the Xanthoria. I have accumulated a few Xanthoria taxonomic papers in recent times but I don't think there is anything other than X. parietina, in the British Isles or in Europe, that it can be.

I think I'd steer clear of the cheese.

Alan

[JennyS]

I think I'd steer clear of the cheese.

whatever they've done to it I vaguely remember a plastic-tasting effect .... must avoid their milk and yoghurt too!