Things Grow on Trees.

Oak with Flavoparmelia caperata.  Hayes Common, 30 December 2016.

Things grow on trees, and I don't mean just fungi, which grow on trees because they are eating the trees.  I mean things that just use the trees as a place to rest, where they can get some light, and stand less chance of being grazed or trodden on.

In the UK, it's mostly lichens, mosses and liverworts.  Other countries with different biota and climates can have a much more extensive range of plants that behave like this.  The tree in the top photo has some moss and some large patches of a distinctive bluish-green lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata.  As you can see, you don't need to go far from a road to find something like this.

Usually, they are high up in the trees, but it is possible to find spots like this where they are arrayed near the ground where you can get a good look.

Oak branch with a range of mosses and lichens.  Hayes Common, 30 December 2016.

As here; some of it is high up, but there's also that long, long low branch covered with greenery.

Evernia prunastri, Oakmoss.  On an oak branch on Hayes Common, 2 January 2017.

In oak woods, there is a great deal of this shrubby Oakmoss, actually a lichen despite its common name.  You can see lots of clumps that have fallen to the ground, perhaps disturbed by squirrels.  It grows on the small branches and twigs.  There are also many other species that are easy to find.

On the trunks you find more of the leafy lichens like the one in the top photo.  Also, things like this:

Metzgeria furcata, Forked Veilwort, on oak.  Hayes Common, 30 December 2016.

This is on an oak trunk.  You might think it looks mossy, but close up:

Metzgeria furcata, Forked Veilwort, on oak.  Hayes Common, 30 December 2016.

Those delicate flat forked straps are not moss leaves at all, but the thallus of a common liverwort, Metzgeria furcata. 

You don't need to go into the woods to see this sort of thing.  Here's a local street tree.

Tree on Bourne Vale, Hayes, 13 January 2017.

The marker shows where I spotted a tiny clump of moss.

Syntrichia laevipila, Small Hairy Screw-moss, on the bark of a tree trunk on Bourne Vale, Hayes, 13 January 2017.

I have rotated the photo to put the moss in a more familiar orientation, but you can see it's growing on rough bark.  There are also several lichens nearby.  There are not many records of Syntrichia laevipila in this area, so this was a good find.

From a distance, this tree might look quite bare without its leaves, but if you look at the higher branches from a bit closer:

Lichens on a tree on Bourne Vale, Hayes, 13 January 2017.

You can see that it is absolutely covered with, not only lichens, but there will also be mosses, liverworts and algae.  And that's on a busy suburban street. 

I haven't mentioned algae before, but only because they are so small that I can't produce decent photos of them.  They are there alright.

Three Related Lichens

Lecanora chlarotera, Lecanora dispersa and Lecanora muralis.  January 2017.

This is a good season for lichens, so I have been taking some photos of them.

These are three species from the same genus.  The first one, Lecanora chlarotera, grows typically on trees, in a patchwork with some soepcies from different families.

Here's a typical example.

Lichens on a tree high on Kemsing Down, 12 April 2014.

Here it's in a patchwork with Lecidella elaeochroma (black dots) and Physcia tenella (small, leafy).

Lecanora muralis, on the other hand, could not have a more different environment.  It grows all over the pavements, often in busy areas.   It prefers not to be walked on too much, but can survive a bit of footfall.

Lecanora muralis,  pavement of Mead Way, Hayes, 29 January 2016.

Here it is on asphalt.  It can easily be mistaken for chewing gum at a casual glance.

The third example, in the middle of the top picture, is Lecanora dispersa.  This is either rarer or just less often recorded.  It's not so easy to see, because what you do see is little more than an array of the fruits, without a visible thallus.  I found that one right next to L. muralis, and I only found it when looking at my photos.

Lecanora dispersa on the pavement on Bourne Way, Hayes, 12 January 2017.

Those light orange dots are another lichen species - I suspect young spots of a Candelariella - and I think the black areas are probably yet another, though I can't be sure, not being a lichen expert.

Green and Yellow

Bisporella citrina, Lemon Disco.  High Elms Country Park, 2 January 2017.

This odd little fungus is Lemon Disco, Bisporella citrina.  The individual blobs are very small, but there can be a lot of them.  This orange display drew me to a log by the side of a path through High Elms Country Park.

Log with two fungus species.  High Elms Country Park, 2 January 2017.

I came for the lemon disco, but stayed for that blue-green stuff on the right .. that is Green Elfcup, a fungus which is quite common, but rarely seen in fruit.  We know it's common because the wood it grows in is stained dark green even when it's not fruiting, and that is found quite often.

Chlorociboria species, Green Elfcup.  High Elms Country Park, 2 January 2017.

Here are the oddly-coloured fruiting bodies.  It's one of two possible species that can't be told apart from a photograph.

That's a great display for a mycologist, though in my opinion, rather an ugly colour ... the wood turns out quite nicely, though.  At one time, it was dried and used to create Tunbridge ware, a form of decorative inlaid woodwork.

(The title of this post, "Green and Yellow" was the title of a folk song I knew as a teenager, a version of the song more commonly known as "Lord Randal."  It did not refer to these fungi, though it could easily have done.)

Showy and Common

Trametes hirsuta, Hairy Bracket.  High Elms Country Park, 8 January 2017.

In this post are two rather similar fungi that produce showy displays when they are fresh.  This first one is Hairy Bracket, Trametes hirsuta.  Similar to, and nearly as common as Turkeytail, Trametes versicolor.  The individual brackets are a couple of inches across and, when young, they are quite hairy.

Trametes hirsuta, Hairy Bracket.  High Elms Country Park, 8 January 2017.

They can completely cover a dead log, like this.  The colour forms range from light brown to almost black, and the zoning effect you can see here makes it an easily recognisable species (except that there is another similar one - a common problem for identifiers! - which has larger brackets.)

The second fungus in this post also produces many small brackets, and can also cover dead wood.

Stereum hirsutum, Hairy Curtain Crust.  High Elms Country Park, 2 January 2017.

It can even have a similar zoned appearance, as you can see here.

Stereum hirsutum, Hairy Curtain Crust.  High Elms Country Park, 2 January 2017.

And, as you might expect from its name, it's hairy!

Stereum hirsutum, Hairy Curtain Crust.  Topside and underside.  High Elms Country Park, 2 January 2017.

But the hairs last longer.  Old Turkeytail does not look particularly hairy, and the brackets seem quite thin.  And if you are ever in doubt about which one you are looking at, the underside is completely different.  That last photo shows the underside of Hairy Curtain Crust on the right.  Here is the underside of Turkeytail:

Trametes versicolor, Turkeytail.  Underside.  High Elms Country Park, 8 January 2017.

Very obviously covered with pores. 

Three Fields from 2016

Hayes Street Farm with Sowthistles and Scented Mayweed.  5 July 2016.

Here are three fields from a folder of things I thought I might put on the blog.  This one is a field on Hayes Street Farm, quite close to my house, which I think must have been sown for green manure.  It was harvested several times during the year.  These plants all occur naturally in this area, but so many similar types all together is not normal.

But because it wasn't fertilised or tended, this field produced a great crop of smaller wildflowers during the year, some of which are quite scarce.  Keep it up!

View of the valley behind Leaves Green, 16 May 2016.

This is one of several dry chalky valleys in the London Borough of Bromley, which extends well out into the countryside.  The yellow flowers are buttercups.

View across fields to the Enfield Road bridge over the River Medway, Leigh, 12 May 2016.

This spot near Leigh is a good area for botanists.  This particular field doesn;t seem to have anything unusual in it, but the display of dandelion flowers and seed heads makes it worth seeing.

But flowers are for the warmer months.  Next time, something more wintery.