Stereocaulon dactylophyllum?

[diggleken]

Hi all, hopefully Jenny or Alan or anyone else.....................
This one has me beat (again) it appears to be a Stereocaulon but which? dactylophyllum, pileatum or evolutum spring out, but I'm just guessing, so grateful for any steer.
On gritstone rocks in the South Pennines at about 1200ft, in a wettish, peaty area.
Cheers
Ken

[diggleken]

Right, Snow lichen, lovely name - I've ruled out pileatum, if that helps...................
Looking like the other two cant easily be separated from a pic?
Any advice?
Cheers
Ken

[AlanS]

Hi Ken, it is difficult to make out the key feature in the photographs (which is the case for most of my own Stereocaulon photographs), but it looks to me as if the phyllocladia (the flaky bits) have grey centres.

If this is the case, then your lichen is much the commonest species: Stereocaulon vesuvianum.

In S. evolutum, the phyllocladia are somewhat wider relative to the branches and lack the grey centre, and in S. dactylophyllum the phyllocladia are shortly cylindrical, i.e. finger-like, as the Latin name suggests.

The epithet 'vesuvianum' refers to the volcano of course, and your photograph shows the typical appearance, as if plumes of smoke are issuing from an eruption.


Alan

[diggleken]

Thanks yet again Alan.
I'll revisit in a couple of weeks and take a hand lens, now I know what features to look out for.
Cheers
Ken