I went to Ashburnham Park with two lichen friends to look at its lichens. Ashburnham Park is a top site in Sussex for epiphytic lichens. This is not necessarily a representative account of the lichen diversity at Ashburnham as we only had time to walk around part of the SSSI; further visits to this outstanding site are required. All the identifications were made collaboratively and are based on morphological features. Lichens marked # require spore microscopy to confirm identification. Thus, some of these identifications are provisional
From the Natural England Sight of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) specification:
Ashburnham is a former medieval deer park lying on Tunbridge Wells Sandstone and Wadhurst Clay. The ancient woodland is one of the largest remaining areas of its kind in the country and contains many overmature trees with outstanding lichen floras.
Pedunculate oak Quercus robur and beech Fagus sylvatica woodland covers the
majority of the site including all of the northern outlier. It varies from a closed high forest to a very open woodland with holly Ilex aquifolium and birch Betula species and a shrub layer of bracken Pteridium aquilinum and bramble Rubus fruticosus. Mature Scots pines Pinus sylvestris occur throughout.
Overmature oaks and beeches occur throughout and support a great variety of
epiphytic lichens with over 160 species recorded from the site as a whole. Holly is also an important host supporting a number of particularly interesting species which are not common this far east of the New Forest.
Ash Fraxinus excelsior is more frequent on calcareous soils in the west of the site while damp alder Alnus glutinosa woodland occupies the stream valleys and lake margins. Areas of coppiced hazel Corylus avellana, hornbeam Carpinus betulus and sweet chestnut Castanea sativa occur throughout the site, and there are also small mixed plantations and many scattered exotic species.
Woodland corticolous lichens
Usnea ceratina
Fallen from a Quercus robur (Pedunculate Oak), U. ceratina is one of the Southern Oceanic Woodland Index (SOWI) lichens of ecological continuity used to asses the quality of woodland sites for lichens (including determining which site might become SSSIs). At the end of this post is a table of all the SOWI lichens. Other SOWI lichens are marked SOWI.
A Quercus robur covered in Thelotrema sp. Bark Barnacle Lichen (SOWI). In the past there was only one Thelotrema sp., T. lepadinum but not it has been subdivide into two: T. lepadinum and
This is probably Thelotrema lueckingii SOWI, and Pertusaria leioplaca., on a Sweet Chestnut, Castanea sativa; one of a few planted in Ashburnham Park. When C. sativa is the main tree in replanted ancient woods it has only Graphidaceae lichens & Pertusaria spp. mostly P. leioplaca. But in here in semi-natural ancient woodland it is joined by a Thelotrema sp.
Similar to Thelotrema lepadinum in almost all details but deviating by the partly citrine yellow medulla (especially in the warts); the pigment reacts K+ red and darkens to an more orange colour when exposed. British Lichen Society Thelotrema luekingii
This is probably Cladonia floerkeana on lignum; red apothecia on podetia difficult to see in this photo
Cladonia caespiticia (SOWI) on Quercus robur
Cresponea premnea (SOWI) on Quercus robur
The dominant species of the Ancient Dry Bark Communities in souther oceanic woodlands (Lecanactidetum premneae) on dry bark on old trees, often with Lecanographa lyncea
Lecanographa lyncea (SOWI) on Quercus robur
Enterographa crassa meeting Cresponea premnea on a smooth patch of Quercus robur. It is possible, but unlikely that this is Enterographa sorediata (SOWI)
Arthonia radiata # on Quercus robur
Phaeographis dendritica # (SOWI) on Quercus robur with Thelotrema sp.
Possibly Phaeographis smithii # on oak twig.
Chaenotheca ferruginea
Anisomeridium sp. # probably: A. biforme
Chrysothrix candelaris Gold Dust Lichen
Pyrrhospora quernea, on Quercus robur
Lecanactis abietina, on Quercus robur
Graphis scripta # on Castanea sativa
Saxicolous Lichens on Capability Brown Bridge
Tephromela atra Black-eye Lichen
Glaucomaria (lecanora) sulphurea
Lecanora sulphurea parasitising Tephromela atra . Very few lichens are parasitic but L. sulphurea is very fond of T. atra.
Saxicolous lichens on walls of church and gravestones of Ashburnham, St Peter
Blastenia crenularia
Calogaya (Caloplaca) decipiens (yellow) and to the right (pits) Verrucaria hochstetteri
Verrucaria muralis
Myriolecis (Lecanora) albescens
Flavoparmelia caperata Common Greenshield Lichen
Ochrolechia parella, surrounded by Glaucomaria (Leanora) sulphurea
Not a lichen but a moth lava surrounded by lichen! Probably Luffia lapidella, one of the bagworm moths, whose larvae make cases out of lichen, and eat lichen.
If you are interested in the class structure of the Sussex landscape and how that interacts with lichen distribution, lichen conservation and public access to nature, and the historic relationship between pasture woodland, tall forest woodland and coppicing for charcoal production for the iron furnaces of the weald, see Lichens of Ashburnham Park SSSI, East Sussex. 12.06.25. Part 2: The impact of the class structure of the Sussex landscape on lichen distribution, conservation and access to the public. 25/https://simelliottnaturenotes.blog/2025/06/13/lichens-of-ashburnham-park-sssi-east-sussex-12-06-25/
Sim's Nature Notes 