maxieput901

As a postscript to this lengthy thread I would like to add an observation re Phaeographis species. During a recent survey in South Devon and Dorset I examined every Phaeographis thallus encountered and found a huge predominance of P. smithii over P. dendritica. Looking at our distribution maps P. dendritica has been more widely recorded. Is this due to a decline in P. dendritica now or were few of those records checked microscopically?

Luckily the difference between these 2 can be seen using a handlens or dissecting microscope in most cases.

Happy new year everyone!

Maxine

You can check out P. dendritica by seeing if it gives a red reaction with KOH.

Hi Jenny

This is certainly Biatoropsis hafellneri as Neil says. It’s quite widespread in the south west of England particularly in Cornwall on Usnea cornuta.

Visualising these LFs is tricky and treatment of horizontal sections with KOH and phloxine is recommended. We managed to get reasonable slides using KOH and ink but only with Biatoropsis usnearum on Usnea subfloridana. We didn’t succeed with B. hafnellneri. We managed to see strings of conidia and basidiomata but it was a laborious business.

Maxine

[attachment=0]usnearum c.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]usnearum b.jpg[/attachment]

Hi Jenny

I keep finding these and hunting unsuccessfully in Ellis & Ellis for clues. It does look like a fungus as I find their spores are often thick walled and coloured. I once spoke to a mycologist about it and confirmed that there are likely to be a significant number of bark fungi not yet described or named so not easy.

I had one barcoded recently and the only information I got was that it was a fungus!

Maxine

This looks like Bacidina caerulea by the colour of the exciple. I recorded a similar lichen as B. friesiana back in 2014 which was probably prior to the split and remember the bluish tinge and the piebald apothecia. I imagine it was actually B. caerulea in fact.

It was also on elder bark and not in a particularly nutrient-rich community. I notice in LGBI3 that a liking for nutrient-enrichment is noted for B. friesiana and not for B. caerulea but perhaps the latter has not been widely enough recorded to comment yet.

This is exactly like something I found recently as a small thallus on an ash twig in Devon. The spores like yours had few longitudinal septa which were restricted to the middle cells. I was uncertain about the true margin as is was not particularly well developed but I recorded it as D. pharcidium and kept the specimen. It’s not a commonly recorded species. I should be interested in Juliet’s thoughts on this one.

Thinking this may be a Trapelia too. Alan Orange did some detailed work on new species but haven’t got the reference with me as away at the moment