Lichen ID

[Tormentil]

Can sks ID this for me please

[leifus]

Parmelia sp.?

[AlanS]

I imagine this thread will be moved to the fungus forum sometime soon - where lichen posts usually go.

Anyhow, as Liefus as suggested, this is a Parmelia - Parmelia sulcata. (One of the few species left in the genus, as it has been much split up in recent years.)

However, at this time of year, these foliose lichens are very dried up and lose their colour, and this is rather old material anyway, with much of the surface taken over with soralia (rounded, powdery lumps releasing a fine dust of asexual reproductive units - soredia - which act like spores).

So it looks very little like P. sulcata does when fresh, but towards the bottom of the photograph I can just make out the surface markings ("pseudocyphellae") that are important for identification (and eliminate some very similar looking Punctelia species, for example).

Besides which, I have been looking at a lot of this species dried up on tree trunks at the moment and have got my eye in for what it looks like in this horrible state.
A few pictures, none very good, on my own site show what the species normally looks like: Parmelia sulcata (images of British lichens) though I am now thinking I ought to go out and photograph it in a dried up state myself! My aim is to show the range of appearance of this common species and maybe this would be an important addition.
Though pretty much any other lichen of the Parmelia group is looking much the same at the moment.

Alan

[Tormentil]

Thanks leifus & Alan.

I new I'd put this query in the wrong forum, but once you've hit the button........

C'est la vie.

[leifus]

that's ok - i am actually suprised i got it right!!! i'm more for wildflowers than lichens