Items welcome: upcoming events, news and images! Send items to Raymond Griffiths
Date:
Ocellomma picconianum is an internationally scarce Mediterranean – Southern Atlantic lichen of dry bark on trees, which is typically found on Holm Oak in humid Mediterranean woodlands (Nimis, 2023). The nearest record before 2023 was in an old riverine woodland in the Landes, Gironde on the Atlantic Coast of France (Roux, et coll., 2020).
Date:
Mike Sutcliffe's British Lichens website has been adopted by the BLS, ensuring the continuity of this very useful website. Mike started this website in 2006 to try and make lichen identification easier for lichenologists at all levels by providing identified pictures to complement identification guides and keys. This produced a very useful site, much used by lichenologists. Sadly Mike fell ill in the early 2010s and could no longer update his site, but his wife Karen Hendrix, ensured his site stayed on line, where it has remained greatly valued by lichenologists. The BLS has now taken on administration of the site and will conserve and improve the site for the future.
Date:
Pat Wolseley has written a set of notes to accompany Claire Dalby's Lichens on Trees poster. Read about how the arrangement of the poster's lichens indicates species that tolerate similar environmental conditions including man-made pollution.
Date:
The newsletter PDF contains these sections:
Lichens for All, Cladonia Species Accounts, Flora of Lichenicolous Fungi Volume 1 · Basidiomycota, AGM, Lichens in the media, BLS Library & Herbarium, Lichen Chat & Improvement Groups (LCIG), LABS groups, Post-LABS groups, GCSE in Natural History, Species Descriptions, Local groups, Lichens and Ash Dieback, Beaver Introduction Consultations, Lichen Survey, Website Working Group, Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland edition 3 (LGBI3), The Lichenologist & BLS Bulletin, Field meetings, Get Involved
Date:
On 19 November five people met up for a day looking especially at the lichen thallus, with expert guidance from David Hill who gave a wide-ranging presentation on the details that can be seen under the microscope, many of which are critical for identification, then down to examination including practical hints on dissection and slide preparation. The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday 10 December when fruiting bodies will be the focus.
Date:
COFNOD is the North Wales centre for wildlife information, one of four Local Environmental Records Centres in Wales. On 10th February they held a conference at Llandrillo College where a number of organisations presented the results of nature conservation and habitat restoration projects. Raymond Griffiths and Eluned Smith attended, to raise awareness of the BLS, to sell books and posters and to make contacts among the wildlife community in Wales.
Date:
The day started at Myrtle’s Courtyard, where we were greeted by the owner and given a short history of the estate. Following an explanation of the ecology of the area, groups, led by experienced lichenologists, explored the park to identify and record the lichens in the varied habitats to be found there.
Date:
Visitors to the RHS Hilltop – The home of Gardening Science – were introduced to the wonderful world of lichen during a talk and walk on the 3rd August.
Date:
On Sunday 17 July, PALE (Petersfield Area Lichen Enthusiasts) took part in Petersfield’s first ever Eco-fair.
The fair was well supported by a wide range of local organisations across four principal categories – Low Waste Living, Nature, Home Energy and Green Travel.
Despite the temperature reaching in the order of 30 degrees, it was most encouraging that there was a steady and interested flow of visitors throughout the six hours of the Eco-fair.
Date:
Along the north coast of Devon between Combe Martin and Countisbury a series of hog’s back hills falls away dramatically to vertical cliffs above the Bristol Channel. Here outcrops of Hangman Grits with north-facing underhangs are home to distinct and interesting communities of lichens which were recorded thoroughly almost 30 years ago.