2 lichens for ident

[Besnard Lake]

Hello all,

I am carrying out a woodland survey and would appreciate help with the ident of these 2 lichens. Not my forte I'm afraid!



The first was on a blackthorn branch and the second on the stem of a Crataegus sp

Many thanks for your help

Bes

[AlanS]

Hi Bes,

The foliose species on the blackthorn is Parmelia sulcata. This is one of our most common woodland lichens on a great variety of trees, and your photograph shows it well.

The powdery crust ("leprose") on hawthorn is Lepraria lobificans. Strictly speaking, Lepraria species usually need chemical analysis for absolute certainty of identification, but your photograph shows characters that enable us to be pretty confident of L. lobificans in the field - rather "spongy" thallus, with a white underlayer, and it is the right shade of green. With a good hand-lens, the granules will be seen to have short, projecting fungal hyphae. It is common on a variety of trees, where shaded and with a fairly humid atmosphere - happily grows on rocks and old walls too, on the damper shady side.

So two very characteristic woodland lichens.

Alan

[Besnard Lake]

Hello Alan,

Many thanks for your informed answers. It's much appreciated.

Best regards

Besnard