UV on Lecanoras / Myriolecis – how does this torch compare?

This was a bit too long for Twitter. I’ve been experimenting with my 365 nm UV torch. (It is an Alonefire 10W SV003 – I now think the 5W SV10 might have been better, as this one is perhaps too powerful, but thought that it might have been too cheap to be good enough). My glasses have UV screening, which I tested by shining the torch through them at fluorescent objects -> no fluorescence, so they work. I also have some ski goggles that screen UV. I may need to get a face-shield though, as my skin is very sensitive to UV.

I’m not sure how comparable these colours are to those produced with the Pioneer torch mentioned elsewhere, so feedback is welcome (but which is difficult to get hold of).

The colours from the lichen with UV in the dark on concrete paving are just astounding.

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I’m gradually working out which lichens are which, and how to take photos of the same patch in daylight and with UV, though haven’t got the hang of getting them properly in focus yet. The most eye-catching lichens were patches of vivid yellow scattered dots (lower right of this photo). I think they are Lecanora (Myriolecis) semipallida. This photo was taken in the day, but under a blanket (fiddly, but otherwise the colours are too faint). At night, the yellow as much more intense.

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Closer view (from another patch) – the fluorescence is mostly (all?) from the discs, rather than the margins.

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The same patch as the first photo in daylight (no UV torch):

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I think that the bigger patch of pale peach apothecia are maybe Lecanora (Myriolecis) dispersa – although that is supposed to be UV-, maybe that is when viewed in daylight, when the peachy colour does not show up? But I haven’t sectioned or chemically tested them yet.

Lecanora (Myriolecis) albescens (K- and C-), at the top right of the main photos, appears to fluoresce a buffish pink, and if the medulla is exposed it shows a bluish white – maybe reflected light rather than fluorescence though.

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The various orange ones are for another day.

Di