Having mentioned lichens, see my last post, I should add a few notes to go with these photographs.
I had of course seen many lichens during our recent fungus foray but they were ignored whilst we concentrated on the fungi. At Rosemoor the RHS has gone to the trouble of producing a leaflet with the help of The British Lichen Society, which describes in some detail some of the 150 or so species which they claim have been found on the site. It has been a feature of this venture to start up our group, nearly a year old now, that as we slowly get more involved in the reality of the wildlife around us, so we discover worlds within worlds. We move from watching birds in our garden to watching flocks of Starlings at Westhay Nature Reserve, similarly with butterflies and learning about Green Down Reserve where the Large Blue is being rescued from extinction. An interest in trees in general led to a walk in the spring in the Beer Wood Reserve to see wild flowers, orchids and the Green-Veined White Pieris napi butterfly and this followed this autumn by the visit to discover fungi.
It was the coincidence mentioned in my last post which took me to Rosemoor and the remakable introduction to lichens.
The most obvious evidence of these plants and related algae was seen on some wooden benches left out in the gardens. In their leaflet they say;
" The four benches.....illustrate how some lichens prefer damper situations on ledges at the backs of the benches and other drier, sunnier positions where birds perch and their droppings provide nutrient enrichment. The small leafy bright orange lichen Xanthoria polycarpa on the shoulders of the bench backs, is an indicator of nutrient-enrichment. ......Note , especially, the distribution of crustose( crust forming), leafy and shrubby forms on the beautifully lichen-covered old bench just round the corner...."
To conclude, we were in a garden famed for its rose bushes and had seen how all around were equally bueatiful and fascinating fungi and lichens and even forms of alga.
Two of the photographs in this post show the benches and the other two show yellow stemmed banboo growing clos to a rock sporting the dramatic bright orange coloring of Trentepohlia
Fab photos!
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