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Looks like Porpidia cinereoatra to me – but should be K-. Definitely NOT Herteliana gagei, which is rarely fertile.
– Alan
While you’re looking for a yellow Myriolecis, could you keep an eye open for Lecidea phaeophysata, which I recently described with Pieter van den Boom from maritime rocks in western Europe ( Lichenologist51(3). 2019). It is not a true Lecideaand appears to be close to Bryobilimbia/Clauzadea, but all collections are too old for sequencing. We have records from western Ireland (Connemara) and northern France (Bretagne) so surely it must occur in SW England or the Channel Islands. Here is the figure from the paper.
[attachment=0]Fig_1.jpg[/attachment] OK, not as easy to spot in the field as a yellow
Myriolecis, but it would be good to be able to add it to the UK list – and even better to have fresh material so we can sequence it and find out where it fits in the scheme of things. Alan
Hi Christine: Well it’s definitely not Lecidoma demissum or Psoroma hypnorum and it could be Solenopsora holophaeae, so I think you’re on the right track. The habitat fits better for S. holophaea as well.
Alan
Neil: Couldn’t agree more with your final comment – “Aaagggghhhhhh” just about sums it up!
It seems to me that BLS/ABLS/IAL needs to fund a sequencing facility that can help resolve problems like this. How about an annual contribution to RBGE to cover staff and material costs?
Alan
Neil: Good question. Fuscidea lightfootii is not known to occur in North America – which is to say, no fertile material has been collected. I collected some good F. lightfootii for James one time when I was back in the UK hoping he would sequence it, but I don’t think he has…
Alan
Hi John: These two are difficult to separate morphologically – you really need tlc. However this publication from James Lendemer, which is freely available on the web, may help.
Lendemer, J. C. 2011: A review of the morphologically similar species Fuscidea pusilla and Ropalospora viridis in eastern North America. Opuscula Philolichenum 9: 11-20.
Alan
Hi Dave: Species containing confuentic acid produce numerous oil droplets with KOH. I wrote a short article about this in the BLS Bulletin in c. 1990. Apparently, NaOH produces crystals, but I haven’t tested this myself. Could it be that you have NaOH not KOH!
Alan
Remarkably, I still have the draft ms for the Saltburn Gill study and it includes data on wind direction from a weather station in nearby Saltburn town. By far the most frequent wind direction is SW, which means most of the pollution from Teesside is blown out over the North Sea (sorry Norway). Westerly winds, which would have blown the pollution to the Saltburn/Kilton area, constitute only 10% of the total! Alan
Hi Neil: Sorry, can’t help with your sterile crust but glad you enjoyed Kilton Beck. I learnt my lichenology in that area back in the 1980’s when I was living in nearby Brotton. I visited Kilton Beck a few times, but was actually rather disappointed with it compared with some of the other ravines in the area – it appeared too open, which meant it was more heavily polluted than other ravines that had a denser canopy, but perhaps it has improved in the past 30+ years. The best ravine that I found in the area was Saltburn Gill, which, apart from being walking distance from my home, had the added advantage of being a local nature reserve owned and managed by the Cleveland Wildlife Trust, which greatly facilitated access. As well as Inoderma subabietina it also had Bactrospora corticola and Lecania chloratiza as well as several other local rarities. Other ravines in the area supported Arthonia elegans and Thelotreama lepadinum and there were also historical records of Lobarion species, but I never found any sign of them. I had a ms 90% completed on the lichens of these ravines, but life, and me, moved on before I finished it. A comprehensive survey of the ravines of the North Yorkshire/Durham coast would be great project for someone…
Stay safe and healthy – Alan
I have some pretty big chunks of mountain in my collection, but it’s true that the most interesting-looking specimens always appear to be in the middle of a flat rock surface. It’s always worth venturing into the hills when they’re covered with snow – you tend to look at different surfaces (underhangs, etc) because they are the only ones visible. Keep up the good work – Alan
