I have long had a fascination with
lichens, not least because of the symbiotic nature of them, but also because of their ability to indicate the relative cleanliness of the air - many species are not very tolerant of air pollution. I think those shown on this headstone must be more tolerant than others as I had a road a few metres behind me and a car park a few metres in front, with this old burial ground sandwiched between. I am no expert when it comes to identification, for that check out a member of the
British Lichen Society, or your local equivalent. I suspect the yellow one here may be a species of
Xanthoria, but I may post this picture (taken with my mobile phone) on
iSpot to see whether I get an identification. This may be hard as you often require specialist equipment and reagents to get a good ID, but you never know! If I find out, I will post here.
Now have the result from iSpot! I was wrong! The yellow one may be
Caloplaca sp and the grey one
Physcia adscendens - thanks to the experts logging on to iSpot!
One of my great frustrations is not being able to identify everything I see, though I know that's totally unrealistic - I think my interests go way too wide! I would, however, recommend anyone to use
iSpot if you are able to photograph something of interest - my experience is that a reply with the ID is given very quickly, sometimes after what appears to be just a few minutes.
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