Hothfield Churchyard lichens

Ros Bennett took us on a fascinating tour of Hothfield Common and then Hothfield churchyard to search for lichens:

Aspicilia

Aspicilia calcarea. This is the lichen described as being like big white splashes of paint on rocks such as hard limestone (as in the British Lichens website) - or in this case walls and tombstones. In overall appearance it is a very white rounded splash. In detail however it is described as being a slightly bluish-white, with one or more unevenly outlined apothecia buried into areolae, with quite a distinct margin to the thallus. In this picture there are some areas of brownish stains, where there are fewer apothecia present.

The picture below of this thallus from Hothfield is much less cropped:

The Aspicilia genus is generally characterised by its largely sunken "apothecia" although they do project normally from time to time. The genus also often has a slightly cracked to distinctly areolate appearance of a generally light coloured thallus on rocks, usually (but not invariably) calcareous. The growth form is often variable, sometimes dramatically so.

There is a quite similar species of Aspicilia found fairly regularly on concrete in towns, Aspicilia contorta subsp. hoffmanniana.

Caloplaca

This is probably one of the Caloplaca species, and should I think be Caloplaca aurantia, with flattened lobes on the placodioid margins. That feature distinguishes it from another common churchyard lichen, Caloplaca flavescens, which has more convex lobes.

This species has darker apothecia, orange to dark brown as they go over. Between the older thallus and the fresh creamy orange lobes, there may appear an apparently lighter zone.

Here is a more cropped photo of the marginal lobes, emphasising the flattened lobes. The Caloplaca is fighting for space with the white crustose species.

Caloplaca teicholyta is a grey species, that looks rather "dirty" with some patches darker than others.

Here is a close-up of the "coral-like" lobules.

Haematomma

This should be Haematomma ochroleucum in both its forms, the whitish (var. porphyrium, lacking usnic acid) and the yellow-grey, var. ochroleucum, with usnic acid). The surface is quite powdery, leprose or farinose.

Lady Amherst's Drive

A quick visit to Lady Amherst's Drive in Goathurst Common this afternoon, parking in the small car park by the cross roads.

In a very brief moment or two I had a look at a few of the young Beech trees in among the sweet Chestnuts, and found Stigmella tityrella and Stigmella hemargyrella. There were also a couple of Phyllonorycter maestingella and one really old but possible Phyllonorycter messaniella.

I thought I might have found a couple of Parornix fagivora, but in the end I couldn't be sure - possibly just a couple of S. hemargyrella mines on the edge of the leaf.

A few "bump" galls as well.

The site is definitely worth another look though!

High Tide at Oare

The light wasn't very good, but the company was very pleasant!

This particular Ruff, Philomachus now within Calidris pugnax, was very neatly coloured, and with somewhat yellowish-green legs:

This bird shows a very scaly back, one of the characteristic features of the species. It is quite a warm peachy colour (still?). I wonder if it has been breeding up on the High Siberian Arctic.

A bit misty from the Trosley viewpoint.

A bit difficult to see far over the Weald from the viewpoint from the footpath (Harrison Drive). The mist and other factors.

Monty has been so good to me over the last ten years, and he has still got a few last lessons to teach me - it is up to me to learn them well.

I have been very lucky, but its not really the day for leaf-miners today.

I did spot a remarkable witch's broom on this Beech by the entrance road.

Ryarsh Wood

A slow amble with Monty today, and a few

Trosley Country Park

I found one very likely Phyllonorycter tenerella (Joannis, 1915) Hornbeam Midget mine today - In this case much less than half the width of the available lamina between two side veins, and starting at the midrib running well over half the distance towards the margin. The mine was also inhabited, although having torn it open I may well have sealed the fate of this caterpillar to die before it achieved its further pupal and adult potential!

The picture below is of the mine from the upper-side of the leaf - well eaten and browned, narrow and tightly folded, and long. Interestingly there was some further feeding damage and even webbing at the ends of the mine - perhaps caused by something else, possibly a Tortricoid?

Phyllonorycter tenerella is a species of southeastern England, as well as of Europe. There are reasonable numbers of regular records from Kent, high in 2008 and 2009, as for other leaf-miners I think. David Solly seems to have been very good indeed at finding them over the years!

As far as other leaf miners go, there were also some (not many) Phyllonorycter esperella mines on the upperside of the leaves and quite a few Stigmella probably microtheriella mines running largely up and down the veins. I also saw a few galls caused by what I have called "vein mites" Aceria tenella (Nalepa).

The Hornbeams at Trosley are quite variable, some young, some older, some coppiced, some maidens. This one is a moderately young Hornbeam, apparently a maiden, never been coppiced. It does look possibly a bit root-bound!

This one is another potential maiden, but quite a lot older! This suggests that there hasn't been much coppicing going on in this are of this particular woodland for quite a long time. This might match the history of the wood as a private estate, rather than a worked woodland.

There is an older picture of the grounds on the internet, of unknown date, but indicating their amenity nature at that time.

I saw two trees that were covered in fruit, and wondered why the distribution of fruit was so unequal across the woodland. I collected a couple of dozen fruit to see if they could be germinated.

Hazel Wood

Walked down from West Peckham in somewhat murky weather, and into Hazel Wood which had regrown and thickened up considerably since its last coppicing!

The Hornbeam and Oak in the first part of the wood are quite traditional. Further down there is more Sweet Chestnut and Aspen. Birch and Hazel are scattered throughout.

Some of the older Hornbeam and Sweet Chestnuts were in trouble:

On the Hornbeam there wasn't a lot of caterpillar damage, and there were relatively few leafminers and galls. There seemed to be reasonable numbers of probable Stigmella microtheriella and Phyllonorycter esperella, with a very small number of probable Phyllonorycter tenerella.

It was interesting to see that what might have been taken for old summer mines of Phyllonorycter messeniella that were indicated by shortly oblong brown patches had in fact been caused by mines of probable Stigmella microtheriella "cutting off" oblongs of tissue by running up one vein, cutting across from that vein to another, and then down that other, and then cutting back to the first - I need to watch out for this rather unexpected pattern, seen at least three times today!

I was surprised not to see any mite galls in the leaf vein axils, and overall I would say that it was a relatively disappointing walk from both the leafminer and gall point of view. The terrible light and miserable murky conditions did NOT help.

Monty struggled a bit with his back legs.