Sunday, March 3, 2013

SP5595ish - more lichens

My square includes a suburban estate on the edge of sterile farmland with some rough scrubby bits that are unmanaged and unloved. There is nothing like proper woodland in this square, and no nature reserves. This is as diversity challenging as I reckon you could get. Hence I'm completely amazed by the variety of lichens and fungi I'm finding, and the variety of mosses that I'm failing with - just shows how much gets ignored in what looks to be dull and uninteresting habitat. Here's some from today, more to come on my blog.

Arthonia radiata

Lecidella elaeochroma, Lecanora chlarotera and Arthonia radiata

Punctelia subrudecta

Cladonia chlorophaea

Diatrypella quercina on dead oak branch

Blushing Bracket

Anyone got a clue what this red rusty stuff is?

Tonight I headed into the garden to see if a leaf mould fungus that Seth has mentioned on Facebook was present on my garden Ivy - found this instead ..

Old Lady, still lots of growing to do

I also found a Satellite at the moth trap, but I'll wait to see if anything joins it before adding to the list.

Taxon Vernacular Date Added
179 Mormo maura Old Lady (larval) 03/03/2013
178 Agonopterix arenella (micromoth) 03/03/2013
177 Scotophaeus blackwalli (spider) 03/03/2013
176 Liocoris tripustulatus (bug) 03/03/2013
175 Daedaleopsis confragosa Blushing Bracket 03/03/2013
174 Diatrypella quercina (fungi) 03/03/2013
173 Punctelia subrudecta (lichen) 03/03/2013
172 Arthonia radiata (lichen) 03/03/2013
171 Cladonia chlorophaea (lichen) 03/03/2013
170 Empoasca vitis (hopper) 03/03/2013
169 Salticus scenicus (spider) 03/03/2013
168 Eristalis tenax (hoverfly) 03/03/2013

And here's the updated breakdown.


Bird 52
Vascular Plant 32
Lichen 18
Fungi 14
Mollusc 9
Moth 8
Moss 7
Spider 7
Springtail 5
Woodlouse 4
Fly 3
Mammal 3
Millipede 3
Beetle 2
Harvestman 2
Ant 1
Bristletail 1
Bug 1
Centipede 1
Earwig 1
Hopper 1
Hoverfly 1
Liverwort 1
Slime Mould 1
Worm 1

179
Agg. 5

3 comments:

  1. The orange stuff is probably trentepohlia the algal photobiont in many lichens. Which of course are a species pair in some form of partnership. The photobiont will shack up with pretty much anything though, so the latin name for lichens comes from the fussy part - the fungal partner.

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  2. Lichens look incredible, but seeing as I've failed to get going on them so far, and the inverts are starting to appear, I suspect I'm going to keep them as a "reserve group", to be brought into play in November if things are getting tricky

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  3. Thanks Matt - certainly looks to be Trentepohlia abietina from tinternet searching. I'll go back for a closer look.

    Could be a good plan Andy - though I'm trying to get as much of this 'other stuff' in while I can before the mothing kicks off and also in case post-August lethargy sets in. I'm also rubbish at plants whilst they are small seedlings with barely any structure or character so I need something to look at!

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