Lecanora helicopis?

[Glos lichens]

Could you maritime people help me out here, please.

I’m looking at a hard sandstone boulder from the mouth of the Severn, no doubt arriving there as part of the sea defences. It was embedded within the salt marsh and getting regularly dosed with sea water and Severn mud. I’m not at all familiar or comfortable with the habitat, so even the commonest things puzzle and worry me.

Is this Lecanora helicopis? If it is, I believe it will be a first record for Gloucestershire.

Juliet

[Neil Sanderson]

Juliet

Not a martime person, but this does turn up on stable flints in the Solent, so it does get into rather low grade maritime habitats for lichens. The only thing like it, Myriolecis actophila, had a paler thallus and a a distinct UV fluorescence, this lichen could occur as well.

Neil

[Glos lichens]

That was a really interesting comment about Myriolecis actophila, Neil. Because, yes, there is another “Lecanora” with it, with a dull pink fluorescence under UV and flexuose margins but the disc is not remotely black with a green-blue tinge, however old the apothecium is, which is what LGBI3 makes be believe Myriolecis actophila should look like. I’ll post it as a new topic, but here is a shot of the community. (Please excuse the mollusc grazing. I left the rock on a windowsill and the local wildlife have found it.)

[John Skinner]

It certainly looks like helicopis to me with its black apothecia and the habitat is good. I have just found it on the Essex coast on flints in a seawall (soon to be replaced) of a muddy creek. [img][/img]

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