John Adams

This trip came close to being cancelled when Storm Debi deposited more than 100mm of rain over the 2 preceding days together with gale force winds, but licheneers (and bryologists) are hardy breeds, and we went ahead, given a forecast offering nothing worse than heavy showers. The roads were passable with care, and we had good turnouts for both the lichen and bryophyte wings.

We started with a gentle stroll up the road from Brown Howe car park, admiring the extremely well hydrated state of everything, but particularly the lichens. The first stop was at a roadside rock, liberally crusted with lichens, including a nice patch of Baeomyces rufus.

And plenty of Cladonias of which portentosa is usually identifiable…

Unlike some others…

We didn’t have to go much further to see the star of the show, a veteran Ash with a good population of Pannaria conoplea, a scarce lichen in Cumbria and one of the Lobarion group of Atlantic rainforest species.

Pannaria conoplea ash tree — *Pannaria conoplea* ash tree

It was a pleasant surprise to find it on several nearby willow trees as well since the ash is unlikely to survive much longer even if it escapes the dreaded dieback.

All the common tree lichens were well represented including a nice Usnea cornuta.

Saxicolous lichens perhaps less so due to most of the rocks being well covered with other vegetation.

But this Cladonia was just showing off!

Pete tried to recruit Tip as a lichen sniffer dog but he wasn’t impressed 🙂

Text: John Adams. Photos: John Adams, Pete Martin, Chris Cant.

Chris adds:

In the afternoon, we continued slowly further into woods where there were some more exposed rocky outcrops. Lichens found included Stereocaulon vesuvianum, Psilolechia lucida, Phaeographis smithii, Candelaria concolor and Fuscidea lightfootii.

Phaeographis smithii section — *Phaeographis smithii* section showing broken black exciple underneath hymenium

As the light faded, Peter found an interesting lichen on rock with small black lecideine fruit. Back at base, we thought that it could be Porpidia flavocruenta. Although some characteristics were right, others were not, such as apothecia and hymenium too small and the exciple did not turn red in K. A tricky genus.

Section showing I+ blue reaction spreading down

It was great to find the Pannaria conoplea and see that it was spreading from ash onto willows nearby. However there no other species from the Lobarion community present. That said, there was very little Xanthoria parietina, which was a good sign.

Next time, hopefully we can get further out onto the common.

Once again, the weather forecast was for sub-zero temperatures, ice and snow. After reassurance from Lee Schofield that the roads to Haweswater were “passable with care” it was decided that the trip could go ahead. We were warmly welcomed by Lee and the rest of the team at the RSPB reserve, and several of them joined us for the day. Since Kerry was the only bryologist to brave the weather, she joined the lichen team for a combined visit, which was very educational on both sides.

We started with a visit to the well-known Lobaria pulmonaria Ash tree across the stream from the farm. Sadly it had lost a large limb a couple of years ago, but this had provided the material for many attempted translocations by Chris and Caz. We visited several of these during the course of the day, and while it is still early days many of them seemed to be doing well.

The breeze in this area was very chilly, so we moved into the more sheltered Mirkside wood, of multi-stemmed hazel with Oak, Ash and Alder. Here we saw Lee’s astonishing discovery of Hazel Glove Fungus, sadly now much eaten by slugs, and accompanied by large quantities of the Glue Fungus which it parasitises. Mycology aside, there were very good assemblages of the typical smooth bark lichens such as Graphis, Arthonia etc., the other Lobaria tree was located and the RSPB team were introduced to the concept of lichen speed (measured in hours per tree). The epiphytic liverworts Frullania dilatata, Metzgeria furcata and Radula complanata were also abundant here. A large patch of Riccardia palmata was found on one of the few logs not covered in snow.

At lunchtime sitting in a wet snowdrift seemed attractive enough, but after some discussion we decided to accept the RSPB’s offer of a warm room with a log fire, tea and coffee, chocolate biscuits and mince pies. Annabel described the future plans for the reserve and for landscape restoration in the surrounding areas. There is fantastic potential but it very much depends on the government sorting out the farm subsidy payments.

After lunch we moved to the sunlit side of the valley, where there is an area of wood-pasture with veteran Ash trees. There were many good representatives of more basic-bark species, a highlight being Normandina acroglypta. The melting snow enabled Kerry to find more bryophytes too, including frequent cushions of Bartramia pomiformis and one patch of Porella arboris-vitae on the crags above the farm.

Overall it was a most enjoyable day, and a site well worth another visit in better weather. Very many thanks to the RSPB for their hospitality and enthusiasm.

John Adams and Kerry Milligan. Photos by John Adams, Chris Cant and Kerry Milligan

Octospora bryophilous fungus note below

Octospora bryophilous fungus

Caz found a distinctive fungus growing on Bryum moss on an ash tree. Chris found spores in a fruit, with 4 or more spores per ascus. The spores were about 30×13μm in size usually with two oil droplets. George Grieff kindly identified it as a known but undescribed/unnamed species which he lists as Octospora sp. Bryum-capillare.

Text and photos: Chris Cant