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Sue

@sueinscotland.bsky.social

Lichens, botany, gardening, anything that sparks my curiosity

158 Posts260 Follower53 Folgt
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · 4w ago

Microsoft planning to build three massive AI data centres in Leeds. It’ll drain thousands of litres of water from the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop the council's final sign-off, but we need more voices. Add your name: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...

Stop the Microsoft AI megasite in Leeds!

Microsoft wants to build three huge AI data centres at Skelton Grange. It would drain the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop it - add your name to the petition.

you.38degrees.org.uk

Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · 2mo ago

While looking at Centaurea montana in my garden, I was puzzled to see clusters of flies(Diptera) on the receptacle and phyllaries under the dead flower heads. Unlike the bees which went for the open flowers. On some their proboscis was out and going along the edges of the phyllaries...1/2

Bee on flowerheadCluster of flies beneath flowerhead.
Science Featured@sciencefeatured.bsky.social · 6mo ago

A remarkable compound from forest lichens, gyrophoric acid, blocks harmful amyloid-beta clump formation and rapidly breaks down existing aggregates—key drivers of Alzheimer’s brain damage. scft.link/oYdBU

Forest Organism Holds Secret to Slowing Alzheimer’s Damage | Science Featured Series

Bringing attention to one of the most challenging brain diseases today, Alzheimer’s continues to affect millions of people worldwide with memory loss, confu ...

scft.link

Trevor Heywood @metroscapes.ca · 10mo ago

There are 110 other posts in the vicinity and I took a closer look at about 40 of them. The original one I noticed still happened to be the best in my opinion, in terms of "terrain" and diversity.

A selection of 24 wooden post tops with varying degrees of wood decomposition and moss / lichen growth.
Caz Walker@northernhills.bsky.social · 11mo ago

This is wonderful. I'd give my right arm to have had such an opportunity in the past. Share far and wide please. #lichengbi #lichen #lichens

The British Lichen Society@britishlichensociety.org.uk · 11mo ago

An opportunity of a lifetime for budding lichenologists. The National Trust and the Royal Botanics, Edinburgh are offering a PAID lichen traineeship in #Scotland! The work programme looks fascinating and a great opportunity to develop skills. Deadline: 3/10/2025. www.asva.co.uk/jobs/trainee...

Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

Found a big stand of Hybrid Woundwort (Stachys x ambigua) which is a cross between Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris). Later in the walk I found the 2 parents. Comparison photos show all 3, L to R: Marsh, Hybrid, Hedge.

Pink spikes of Hybrid Woundwort flowers with grass, Valerian and Hogweed in the backgoundClose up of pink flowers of Hybrid Woundwort with a grass head alongside (Yorkshire Fog, Holcus lanatus)3 Woundworts in a row. Left to right: Marsh, Hybrid, HedgeComparison of flowers and leaves of Woundworts. Left to right: Marsh, Hybrid, Hedge The flowers get darker left to right and the leaves get wider and their stalks longer
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

More from the garden fence. Another light brown crustose thallus but with a few apothecia. Puzzled over this one as not many spores. It keyed out as Lecanora conizaeoides which used to be really common in UK but is now much rarer according to Dobson. ID confirmed by Brian Coppins. #lichenGBI 1/2

2 photos of a light brown thallus on wood. A 10 cm ruler for scale. Text: Thallus 2 – fawn, crustose, areolate, granular with a few apothecia. 10cm x 2 cm along grain Close up view of crustose thallus showing apothecia. Text: Thallus 2 – fawn, crustose, areolate, granular with a few apothecia. 10cm x 2 cm along grain Picture of crowded apothecia. Text: Apothecial diameter, 0.6-0.7mm Green photobiont visible in margins, lecanorine
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

We recently removed some of an old (pine) fence and as well as gaining some firewood, I acquired plenty of lichen samples to play with. So far, I have identified 2 of the crustose ones. First up is Hypocenomyce scalaris. No apothecia on my sample but unmistakeable C+red reaction #lichensGBI 1/2

An old wooden fence in the process of being reduced5 pieces of wood with crustose lichens growing on them. Don't you just love it when you can take the piece of wood instead of having to try and cut a sample off!A light brown crustose lichen with a 10 cm ruler in the photo for scale. The thallus is about 20cm by 5cm in sizeA close up of the thallus showing several squamules (small scales) with white powdery edges, which are soredia. The red scale bar is 1mm. Larger squamules about 1.5mm but many much smaller.
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

A visit to Beachen (say Bee - ach - en) Wood in Grantown-on Spey (NJ0228, vc75) surprised me with lichens I associate more with the West Coast and wetter weather. Here is Degelia plumbea (now Pectinea plumbea) #lichengbi 1/2

£ photos of a tree with a grey lichen covering much of the trunk. Habitat : Mixed deciduous woodland, Old woodland as some Lobaria. Substrate: On Aspen trunk, SW side. Thallus: Grey, large expanse (10cm ruler in photo), thick and lumpy, cracked with dark hypothallus showing. A grey lichen with red apothecia and some black ones Reddish, lecideine apothecia, under 1mm across. Numerous. Also black apothecia and black areas. (“The principal host of Toninia plumbina, which can be mistaken for blackened apothecia of the host. LGBI3) Close up of grey lichen with red apothecia and black infected onesGrey underside of lichen showing rhizines
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

Phaeophyscia orbicularis #lichenGBI. The first time I found this I struggled to get to an ID as it was not orbicular at all, just a series of amalgamated thalli. This will be a longish thread but shows how these don't always look like their pictures in the books! 1/3 (I think!)

2 pictures of tree trunks in Scotland. Text: Habitat: 2 mature Aspen by stream and sheep field Large area of grey lichen on trunk of one tree, west facing side About 60 cm by 20 cm, made up of smaller areas on raised portions of bark Pictures of greyish lichen on bark. Text: Small foliose lobes (width less than 1mm) interspersed with immature Physcia (tenella or adscendens) and moss. Difficult to make out details with naked eye. Lobes closely appressed.Piece of lichen with mm scale. A small piece of Physcia also attached. Lichen of interest is the area with grey green lobes and some round areas of black and green Pictures of wet and dry lichen. It turned greener when wet.
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

An easily recognisable #lichenGBI because of its big black apothecia - Porpidia macrocarpa. Found in Grantown-on-Spey, Moray, Scotland, vc 95 on a sandstone garden wall. I had not realised that there are 2 forms. My sample turned out to be P. macrocarpa f. nigrocruenta (exciple K+ crimson)

3 pictures of a crustose lichen with a white/grey thallus and big black apothecia. Text box reads: Habitat : Suburban Road, capstones of sandstone wall, with some concrete on top. Large grey cracked thallus, about 15 cm across with very big black lecideine apothecia Close up picture of apothecia. Apothecia 2.2mmm on sample I took. Convex, distorted creased surface when clustered. Testing on thallus in situ C-, K- White prothallus section of apothecium and picture of spores Section in water: Greenish epithecium, clear hymenium, dark hypothecium Spores simple, elliptical with somewhat pointed ends. Spore average 17.8 x 7.2 µm Keying out using Dobson. Dobson p374 Porpidia Key 1 not sorediate > 4 thallus white, grey >5 large apo >1.3mm, > 8 exciple K=y to red – no>9 thallus grey/rusty >10 3mm apo Porpidia macrocarpa. Extract from LGBI3 key : if exciple releases a crimson solution in K it is f. nigrocruenta. Picture shows portion of exciple in K with crimson colour
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

Bloody Heart Lichen #LichenGBI aka Mycoblastus sanguinarius found on a dead pine branch at Glenmore, Inverness-shire, vc96. So called for the red colouration under the apothecia (so I would have identified this sooner if I had scratched of an apothecium) 1/2

Walking up by a stream – clearfell on other (West) side, plantation conifers with some older trees on my side. Lichen found on a dead granny Scots Pine, on a low branch Photo of dead pine tree and aerial view of Loch Morlich and surrounding forest with small shaded square showing location of lichen Dead pine branch with a green circle showing location of lichen, which looks like a white patch.Photo of greenish-white thallus, with black lecideine apothecia, scattered, about 1mm diameter. Photographs of thallus when chemicals added Testing: Thallus C-, K ? Not much to see on filter paper But definitely yellow in UV: K/UV + yellow (and I could just see a tiny yellow fluorescing spot on the filter paper)
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

#lichenGBI. Another lichen with perithecia on the same branch as Porina aenea. Struggled with getting an ID for this one and at first went for Anisomeridium ranunculosporum but the ascus size and shape was wrong and eventually got to Arthopyrenia analepta. Thread 1/2

Picture of lichen on bark with bigger perithecia,0.44mm, no dark thallus and perithecia occurred singly and scattered. Second picture is a section through the perithecium, about 0.36mm across Close up of inside of perithecium showing asci with spores insideA squash, after KOH-ink-vinegar showing spores, 8 per ascus and an ascus tip showing a little protrusion into the tip. 1 septate with a big half with 1 oil body and a narrower part with 2 oil bodies (rather like a shoe sole) average size 15.17 x 4.45µmMore photographs of spores which did not leave the asci even in a squash. The spores are 1-septate with a bigger top half and the lower half has a constriction in the middle which almost makes it look as if there is another septum.
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · last yr.

#lichenGBI Chaenotheca ferruginea NN7299, vc96, East-Inverness-shire. This was my first find of a pinhead lichen near home. I must have walked past it hundreds of times in my pre-lichen days. If I had walked round at night with a UV torch it would have shouted look at me as it fluoresces. 1/2

Small loch (in kettle hole) surrounded by mature larches. Looking south. Tree investigated is on far bank, near water but shaded by slope Picture of larch trunks by a path with a yellow patch of lichen arrowedGolden yellow crust on North side of Larch tree. Covering raised sections of bark, not cracks. Some grey-white areas at edges of yellow areas – prothallus? Picture of a yellow granular thallus with a scale showing that the granule size is up to 0.5mm
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · 2y ago

#LichensGBI Another little brown bushy lichen, mainly found in Northern Scotland, Cornicularia normoerica. Unmistakeable once you have seen it, and no microscopy needed. It's the only species in Cornicularia. (Who were Norman and Eric??) 1/2

Old dry stone wall, adjacent to moorland used for grazing, exposed West facing. Rocks are siliceous (acid) Pictures of brown lichens, one is Umbilicaria polyphylla, and the other is Cornicularia normoerica. Thallus fruticose 1cm high 2-3 cm across feels stiff and bristly dark chestnut colour shiny Close up pictures of thallus and apothecia. Apothecia a few mm across. Brown, shiny. Margin same colour as thallus and growing projections Picture of apothecium. Under microscope – 3mm across. Less mature margin? Branches with bumps
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · 2y ago

#lichensGBI Time for a lichen post after a Christmas/New Year break. This one is a local speciality of the Cairngorms, in Scotland, and is a favourite of mine, Cetraria sepincola. No need to go high to find it, as it is in my village (250m above sea level). And no microscopy needed for ID! 1/2

Map of Scotland with red cross on location of Newtonmore which is in Cairngorm National ParkArial view of Area around Newtonmore showing houses and fields and red circles in 3 places showing where lichen Cetraria sepincola has been foundPicture of birch tree. Text says: Habitat – well lit birch tree, in woodland. Actually a wasteland area between two housing estates, on a SE slope. Microhabitat – on very thin brittle twigs of birch Distribution map for Cetraria sepincola showing most of it in Cairngorm area. Map from British Lichen Society.
regular slime guy@regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Slime mold" is a popular political insult but slime molds are actually the smartest and safest molds, & in some ways smarter and safer than politicians. I definitely would not eat a US senator for example, nor would I expect them to do complex pathfinding calculations for me

A photo of Didymium clavus by Gim Siew Tan: two saucer shaped hats covered in white crystals growing from brown stalks like tree trunksA photo of Diachea leucopodia by Gim Siew Tan: a metallic & iridescent lingam on a chalky white stalkA photo of Hemitrichia calyculata by Gim Siew Tan: a wiry yellow puff sits in a shallow yellowy cup on a thin black stalkA photo of Alwisia bombarda by Gim Siew Tan: a thick translucent stalk supports what looks like many peeled grapes
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · 2y ago

A thread about Buellia disciformis. This was on an aspen twig in Scotland, NN69, vc96 East Inverness-shire. It was in old woodland, mainly birch and a few old but failing (and falling) Aspen #lichenGBI 1/4

A large fallen aspen trunk with patches of lichen
Sue@sueinscotland.bsky.social · 2y ago

Another yellow #lichen which puzzled me for a while as it is usually found with apothecia but this thallus had none. Found on the top of a large pine fence post, nutrient enriched, from bird perching, a sheep field on one side and a road on the other. In Scotland NH7300, vc96 #lichenGBI

3 pictures of the top of a pine fence post with a yellow brown crustose lichen growing on the top