Lichens on Pendunculate Oak, Quercus robur, Lag Wood, 11.03.24

Habitat: Low weald clays. Mixture of ancient Pendunculate oaks, Hornbeam and Hazel (coppiced),and Hawthorne

what3words location: ///crunch.digests.hoping

Lichens:

Lepraria sp., probably L. finkii,Fluffy Dust Lichen

 

Phlyctis argena, Whitewash Lichen

Mosses:

Rhynchostegium confertum,Clustered Feather-Moss

Ferns:

Polypodium vulgare, Common Polypody fern

 

Non-epiphytc organism on the tree:

Andricus kollarinOak Marble Gall Wasp

Significant organisms near the tree:

 

Anemonoides nemorosa,Wood Anemone; an ancient wood indicator plany

Lichens at Ashcombe Bottom, between Brighton and Lewes. A relict of ancient South Downs forest 01.04.21

Ashcombe Bottom, 4km west of Lewes, is one of the very few ancient woodlands left on the East Sussex Downs. ... the hazel coppice supports a colony dormice - an exclusively arboreal rodent - to which for millennia this wood must have been a kind of ark in an ocean of open fields. Among the hazels grow many spreading oaks, their branches festooned with polypody and harts tongue ferns. Oaks dislike chalk but thrive here because the acid clays deposited on top the chalk have not been dispersed by ploughing or erosion.Owen Johnson (1998) The Sussex Tree Book p.24. 

Normandina pulchella Elf Ears Lichen with Fruliana Dilatata, Dilated Scalewort 
Parmotrema perlatum, Black Stone Flower and Fruillana dilatata, Dilated Scalewort. growing on an Oak 

 An Usnea sp, possibly Usnea cornuta s. l., high up on the branches of the fallen oak above 

Xanthoria parietina Golden Shield Lichen  

Probably Lepraria finkii Fluffy Dust Lichen

 

Flavoparmelia caperata Common Greenshield Lichen; common on may trees in Ashcombe Bottom 

 

Ramalina farinacea Farinose Cartilage Lichen, a very common lichen on Hawthorn and other trees 

 

For a fuller account of all the species I saw at Ashcombe Bottom see:  

Ashcombe Bottom, East Sussex. Relict ancient woodland on the South Downs. Birds, vascular plants, bryophytes, lichen & fungi. 01.04.21