Loving Lichens

Incredibly three more people booked onto my Loving Lichens Workshop after 11pm last night.... So 12 of us met up this morning at BorrowBeck.

Leaving Orton for the 5minute drive it was a bullet hard frost and fog - but we managed to spend the morning in glorious sunshine.
I learnt I definitely don't want more than 12 people on a workshop, but I hope all the participants also learnt a thing or two about these marvels of nature. I've been amazed how popular these half day sessions have been in the outdoor community.
Here we have three learning lessons:
Xanthoparmelia conspersa. I was quite excited the first time I identified this. All the Parmelia are normally just called Shield Lichens. To get down to species was great. Or so I thought. I'd identified it from pictures as the near identical Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia, should be easy to remember as I'm in Cumberland. It turns out that that only grows in N&S America. Lesson; they can look identical to the naked eye, the devil really is in the detail.
Next is Candlesnuff fungi (it earns this common name as it is gently bioluminescent) . A good visual indicator that demonstrates the close familial ties between lichens and their fungi cousins. Today a participant guessed at it being a Cladonia, but this has no photobiont, and feeds on rotting material. Lichenised fungi work in a mutualistic symbios with their photobiont partner to form sugars for food. Lesson: lichens are the oldest love story.
Finally we have Cladonia squamosa. The flakey (or squamulose) nature of the poorly bonded photobiont clearly visible. It also shows the changing nature and understanding of lichens. When fruiting they clearly appear fruticose with the cups and stalks, but they also appear almost foliose with their leaflike bases, despite the squamulose scales only having a single green side. Many lichenologists are now giving them a new classification, Cladoniform. Lesson: 'facts' evolve.