Punctelia and Ramalina query

[JennyS]

A few lichen from this weeks folders that I hope I've IDed ok (she says with fingers crossed), corrections much appreciated!

1. On coastal rock - Caloplaca verruculifera?


2. Are both / either of these Ramalina lacera? The LH one was on the sheltered side of a coastal rock, the RH one on tree.


3. On deciduous trees in old estate woodland, Sticta and Lobaria species were also present - Punctelia reddenda?
Punctelia 1

Punctelia 2


Punctelia 3


4. Sticta limbata?


These are a relief to look at again as an antidote to too many Dactylorhiza!

[AlanS]

Hi Jenny,

I fear I am going to be a bit awkward about these.

1. I think this is Caloplaca decipiens. Telling this from C. verruculifera in photographs is very difficult, as the critical question is whether it has soredia or isidia (with the isidia globose and looking like soredia!).

I would say that this has soredia - they seem to be formed in soralia (initially from the thallus margins) rather than individually on the thallus surface. If so, then this diagnoses C. decipiens. But we need a high-power view.

Contributing features
a) colour - C. decipiens is often bright orange, C. verruculifera is typically markedly yellow-green (the colour in Dobson's photograph is atypical).
b) your photograph shows apothecia, infrequent in C. decipiens but very rare in verruculifera.

On the other hand, C. decipiens is evidently rare in Ireland.

So all in all, I am not sure. Good lens or dissecting microscope needed.


2. Left hand one, who knows? It is horribly deformed.
Right hand, yes, Ramalina lacera looks likely, but I don't see any soralia and they are needed for confirmation. I cannot rule out R. canariensis for this.


3. I have had a good look at these, compared them with the set of Punctelia photographs I now have, and I am afraid I don't think any of them are Punctelia spp. Some photographs show the pseudocyphellae starting to form a network, indicating Parmelia rather than Punctelia, and some if not all photographs show isidia forming on the lobe surfaces, not the rounded soralia bursting through the cortex that help define Punctelia.
I think they are all Parmelia saxatilis! Sorry.
Parmelia saxatilis is, of course, very variable, and I am pleased to note that in the new Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland they indicate that the new P. ernstiae is probably just part of the range of variation of P. saxatilis (a conclusion I was coming to myself).


4. Yes!

Hmmm. Dactylorhiza??
Sigh, I have been stuck indoors checking examination results for the past few days. Still, the Cambridgeshire Fens now beckon.


Alan

[JennyS]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the reply and I hope you're soon liberated to the Cambridgeshire Fens......

1. It was habitat and distribution details that influenced my initial identification - the LichenIreland map shows C. verruculifera with a coastal distribution and C. decipiens only sparsely recorded from the eastern corner, and with an inland distribution.......

I'll have to go back sometime and get a sample to send to a friend with a miscroscope... are there other distribution maps I can access online?

3. That's a shame!

Jenny