Thanks to everyone who came on yesterday's midweek recording walk in Scammadale. There was a good turnout of nine, and the weather was kind once again. We walked along the River Euchar where there were some fine ash trees with an endless supply of interesting lichens, in fact we were in danger of spending all morning on the first tree. The photos below show Pertusaria pertusa,  which is made up of chunks like dice with various numbers of  dots and close by we discovered Pannaria rubiginosa.

Then we went into some Hazel woodland where we recorded the distribution of Hazel Gloves, the fungus that indicates ancient untouched Atlantic Hazelwoods, which was not previously known from this site. Thanks to everyone's sharp eyes we found a good number of specimens including the stonker shown below which I'm glad to say added a new word to Alan's vocabulary.  Another  fungi discovered was Exidia repanda (Birch Brain Fungus) on a fallen birch twig suspended from a hazel branch,  with a  jelly-like consistency of the familiar Yellow Brain Fungus, but it is less contorted (or perhaps just less brainy? )

We also found Birch Polypore, Hoof Fungus, Pink Curtain Crust,(see below) and Alan discovered some of the green-staining wood fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens. The best fungal find was some more of the flimsy bracket fungus Plicatura crispa (see below) which had been found previously at Glen Feochan. This fungus has an eastern distribution and had not been recorded this far west at all but seems to be a constituent of Atlantic Hazelwoods  now that it's turned up in two of them. It seems the fungi of these woods have been researched a lot less than the lichens and there must be many more discoveries to be made.

As you'd expect, the Hazel woods had a rich lichen flora dominated by Lobarion lichens, and often three Lobaria species (L pulmonaria, L virens and L scrobiculata) were found growing next to each other, but we didn't find the fourth one, L amplissima.

We had plenty of opportunity to compare the smooth plum tarts of Degelia plumbea (see above) with the crusty ones of Pannaria rubiginosa, as well as with the tartless Degelia atlantica, and the quartet was completed by Pannaria conoplea which also lacks tarts.The final find was a cushion jelly lichen Collema fasciculare (see above) found by Richard. Thanks again to everyone.  Looking forward to the next walk.

 
Carl and Richard