Scottish Lichen

[chazzpott]

Can anyone help with ID of this?


I have checked Phillips Grasses, Ferns, Mosses and Lichens and have narrowed it down to either a Cetraria or a Platismatia. Am I on the right track?

[JennyS]

Its Lobaria pulmonaria, Tree Lungwort

[chazzpott]

Many thanks Jenny. Non flowering plants are not my strong point, which is probably obvious.

[AlanS]

Yes, as Jenny has said, this is Tree Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonata).

I am interested to see that it is apparently on a mossy boulder, which indeed is sometimes the case, but usually it is on tree trunks. Being so big and only loosely attached, entire sheets often fall to the ground, so I am wondering if such a loose sheet was then picked up and put on the boulder for photography?

On trees it can be an indicator of other nice things. It is one of our most pollution sensitive lichens, so is common only in parts of western Scotland. I have rather kept out of this area, on the grounds that I should be able to competently name my local lichens first! However, last weekend I was indeed passing by a wonderful site in Argyllshire, where it grows with many other "high Atlantic" lichens - curtains of L. pulmonaria hanging on the trunks, the more blue-grey and equally large L. scrobiculata in close company, bright green patches of L. virens clinging to the trunks like a very large liverwort, brown clumps of Leptogium burgessii with discs with radiating petal-like structures on the margins and looking like miniature sunflowers carved out of brown jelly, large, blue-grey patches of Degelia plumbea, brown lettuce-like and slightly spiky "leaves" of Sticta sylvatica, and perhaps my favourite and completely new to me - more great, hanging, leaf-like lobes, but this time dark olive-green, with the surfaces spotted and marked with bright yellow - Pseudocyphellaria crocata. All these on one tree!

But in the most dreadful light. Mid-afternoon but with heavy, winter, rain clouds. Some desperate flash photography with scarcely enough light to focus, and many more hope-for-the-best natural-light photographs, but thanks to the freedom of digital photography, just a few successes amongst something like 200 shots that were deleted as soon as I saw them on my computer screen. Two hours drive from my home, so I think I'll be back there before too long.

Alan

[AlanS]

oops. for "pulmonata" read "pulmonaria" (as already correctly typed in Jenny's answer).

Alan

[chazzpott]

I am a little concerned, AlanS, that you think the Lichen was placed on the wall in the woods for the purposes of photography.

Quote
I am interested to see that it is apparently on a mossy boulder, which indeed is sometimes the case, but usually it is on tree trunks. Being so big and only loosely attached, entire sheets often fall to the ground, so I am wondering if such a loose sheet was then picked up and put on the boulder for photography?

To put the record straight, here are some more photos of L pulmonaria which I "picked up and put on the wall."






Charlie.