14
Recent Interesting Lichen Finds in Essex
Over the last few years there have been several
interesting species of lichens found in Essex:
nothing of great rarity in the national sense,
but in a county context these are a useful
addition to our lichen flora. In this article
the nomenclature follows "A checklist of British
lichen-forming, lichenicolous and allied Fungi"
by Hawksworth, James and Coppins in Lichenologist
12; 1 (1980). I mention this because this
recent list has introduced many name changes.
I have noted the more familiar names where this
may prove helpful.
A lichen that is common throughout much of Britain
but is surprisingly rare in Essex is Cladonia
portentosa (=C. impexa). Prior to 1981 there
were two records for Essex: one for Tiptree
Heath, an 1862 specimen in the Varenne collection
in Passmore Edwards Museum, and an unlocalised
one for grid square TL81 (which could again be
Tiptree Heath, whose lichen flora I have not yet
examined) made by Francis Rose and A. Pentecost
between 1969 and 1971. It was quite exciting,
therefore, to discover it at Alresford with
Jeremy Heath in 1981, on a tiny patch of relict
heathland. A few months later, on 17th April,
1982, a mapping meeting of the Botany Group of
the Field Club again found C. portentosa, in a grave
pit at Ballast Quay, north of Fingringhoe. Here
it was growing under young Birch trees in local
abundance. On the same day, Martin Gregory
gave me a specimen of the same lichen from
Woodham Walter Common, where he had known of a
small patch for some time, the first record for
South Essex (Vice-County 18).
C. portentosa is one of the so-called "reindeer
mosses" with a richly branched pale grey thallus