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Yes Coniocarpon cinnabarinum is spreading widely now, and does seem to be doing quite effective long jumps in the process. As the scatter of 19th century records suggests, this likely recovering lost ground rather that totally new colonisation, presumably after the decline of SO2 pollution.
Neil
Cladonia grayi is the one species in that group that can be eaily identified but does not seem very frequent so a nice find. Yes mosses in the sooth of Scotland do seem to be good Cladonia hunting ground, often in areas with little other lichen interest.
Red Moss SSSI; Crawfordjohn, Cladonia rich hag with Cladonia incrassata.
Set in very dull grassy moorland.
Neil
Not sure that is a Taeniolella but no idea what it actually is. There is a world flora of lichenicolous Hyphomycetes, so if it is a described species it is in there: Diederich, P., Ertz, D. & Braun, U. (2024) Flora of Lichenicolous Fungi, Vol. 2, Hyphomycetes. National Museum of Natural History, Luxembourg, 544 pp. Download from here link. However, there is nothing obvious in the family based host key and the generic key needs considerable mycological experience to use.
Neil
Chris
Looks good for Porina rosei, definitely with a clear cortex, so not Porina hibernica, the cortex has projecting cells, so not Coenogonium nimisii which has a smooth outline and not projecting enough to be Porina atlantica. 40 µm is a bit wide for a well grown Porina rosei isidia but there is an issue in that the isidia start stubby and wide then thin as they grow up. The dense but clumped look of the isidia is what would be expected as well. The nearby record of Porina hibernica is interesting as there was a lot of past confusion and not all old Porina hibernica records are easy to check. There is a Brian Coppins specimen of Porina hibernica from Elm in Borrowdale that has been checked, which could be the one you refer to, but this is the northern most confirmed record for Porina hibernica I am aware of; it would be good to see a recent specimens from Scotland (the most recent dot from Glen Coe seems to have been Porina collina, it was on a upland boulder).
Neil
Hi
Not getting notifications of new threads, so missed this, but the simple answer is it not either Cladonia cervicornis or Cladonia verticillata. This is because it has a granular cortex; the Stacking Cups have a smooth cortex without granules or soralia and cups with a shallow flat base, see link & link.
This is definitely something in the Cladonia chlorophaea s. lat. group link (proliferating podetia not uncommon in this group), but given the look (not green enough for typical Cladonia chlorophaea s. str.) and habitat (very acid) most likely one of Cladonia grayi group of species. Further spot test might get us closer, but probably unlikely to be definitive but look for UV fluorescence (bright blue-mauve would be Cladonia grayi s. str.) and test for any KC reaction (+ strong but fleeting wine red would be Cladonia cryptochlorophaea or Cladonia merochlorophaea).
Neil
Kian
That was fast! Hum, lacks the fuzyness I would expect. I will sleep on it! The usual probem look a bit like is Megalaria pulverea, this always gives a K/UV(dry)+ bright yellow spot test, so worth trying that test. Right habitat and much more mobile.
You can get Pd from John Skinner via the BLS and sodium sulphite to stabilise a mix with vodka from the internet.
Neil
A couple of New Forest photos of Phyllopsora rosei:
Phyllopsora rosei on Beech, damp thallus, Little Stubby Hat, New Forest
Phyllopsora rosei on Beech, dry thallus, Little Stubby Hat, New Forest
Neil
Kian
Have you tried Pd, the lack of a Pd reaction is concerning, this is normally strong, also I can not quite fully resolve the pictures; they look a bit sorediate, which would be wrong too. Can you do less close in photos?
Neil
Had a look at my herbarium specimens. All my Alyxoria varia was A. varia, but the Alyxoria viridipruinosa collections were a mixed bag. The ones with big obvious pycnidia that matched the macro characteristics of Alyxoria lichenoides, also had large conidia of the correct size, so were that and those with small, quite difficult to spot, pycnidia had the shorter conidia of Alyxoria viridipruinosa, so these seem two species quite doable in the field. My Alyxoria varia collections were all from lees disturbed woods, while the Alyxoria lichenoides and Alyxoria viridipruinosa, were either from nutrient rich wound tracks on old trees in old woods or from bark in more nitrogen enriched habitats.
Seems to work quite well.
Neil
Mianly a test of the new forum, another picture from the New Forest of Palicella filamentosa:
A stacked photo of young Palicella filamentosa apothecia on an old Oak gate post at Islands Thorns Inclosure in the New.
Also from Birch lignum on in an upland pasture woodland, Loch Killin, East Inverness, so from a speciment collected April 2026, so back in Scotland too
A stacked photo of Palicella filamentosa (centre) on Birch lignum, Xylographa parallela below and Lecidea turgidula above, Loch Killin, East Inverness
Neil
Nice to see the forum is back!
Over the interregnum I have seen this taxa in a few places in the New Forest on Oak, all on Oak twigs and quite easy to spot from the sliver patches of bark and the irregularly rounded Arthonia like apothecia. Mostly rather scrappy specimens but this is a nice specimen from my home wood
Arthonia cf hypobela on Oak twig in the New Forest
Arthonia cf hypobela apothecium squash in K
The spores were Spores 35 – 38 x 10 – 12 µm 7 – 9 septate.
Putting this up mainly to explore the new forum, have not yet found a preview button yet so no idea what this looks like
Neil
Yes other than the big spores, the apothecia do look similar to those of Naevia, but the ascomatal gel being I+ red would be different from the species that Thiyagaraja et al. (2020) included in Naevia. Nothing with spores as big as my taxa in his table either. I imagine it would need sequencing to place the species. It does seem to match specimens that have been called Arthonia hypobela, but I would not be surprised if it was not that! Will look out for more, I think there is a bit of it about in the New Forest, but it is not frequent.
Neil
Juliet I have sympathy with the idea that
Polycauliona candelariaand P. ucrainicaare the same species; they are certainly not easy to seperate. I would like larger thalli but, as stated, it seems closer to P. ucrainica. Neil
Oh yes with Rinodina aspersaand Trapelia obtegens, Rinodina aspersahas atranorin, so gives a K/UV(dry)+ bright yellow spot test while Trapelia obtegensdoes not, which is useful. Neil
Found Palicella filamentosain Hampshire now. It was on lgnum on a standing dead Yew tree in pasture woodland at Gorley Bushes, Fritham in The New Forest. Got a K/UV(dry)+ bright yellow spot test in the field and the other features martched:
[attachment=0]2026-07-24-01.jpg[/attachment]
Field picture on Yew
[attachment=1]2026-07-24-06.jpg[/attachment]
Specimen (ruler devisions = 0.5mm
[attachment=2]2026-07-24-08.JPG[/attachment]
Apothecium cross section in water in polarised light
[attachment=3]2026-07-24-09.JPG[/attachment]
Apothecium cross section in water
[attachment=4]2026-07-24-10.jpg[/attachment]
Apothecium cross section in water, squashed a bit to show granules in epithecium
[attachment=5]2026-07-24-12.jpg[/attachment]
Spores & paraphyses tips in KI am fairly sure all my
Lecanora aitemarecords from Hampshire were of this, they were C- and not obviously Lecanora symmicta, but I was a bit worried by the paler disks, just had not checked systematically. Great Kian has got this. I have produced a species report on the BLS website
https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/resources/species-accounts/palicella-filamentosa ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/resources/species-accounts/palicella-filamentosa Neil
