Moor rock lichens?

[diggleken]

Help please!
On rocks on peat moors yesterday, Snow Lichen - Stereocaulon vesuvianum and Porpidia cinereoatrano?

Sorry about the rushed blurry pic, hopefully it will do!
Cheers
Ken

[AlanS]

Hi Ken,

You are most likely correct on both, though I cannot be certain.

The Stereocaulon certainly looks like S. vesuvianum and it is much the commonest species, but I cannot be sure I can make out the critical features.

Similarly, the lecidioid crust indeed looks like Porpidia cinereoatra, but there are other, similar species. I am assuming the rock is nutrient-poor and so P. cinereoatra is the most probable, but Porpidia is a large and nasty genus.

Alan

[diggleken]

Thanks a lot Alan, understood - at least I'm trending the right way with genus!
It was nutrient poor, middle of acid moorland, so probably as you say, but with uncertainty over species level.
Cheers
Ken