Amateur Naturalist. Volunteer with Brighton & Hove SpeakOut (advocate for people with learning disabilities). Volunteer with RSPB Pagham Harbour (walk leader & ranger). Volunteer with the Lost Woods of the Low Weald and South Downs (lichen walk leader). Retired teacher (SEND). BMus, PGCE, MA (History of Art), MSc (Psychology)
On Saturday 22.03.25 I led a Lost Woods of the Low Weald and Downs lichen walk for the Sussex Wildlife Trust Storrington and Arun Valley Regional Group at Hesworth Common, Fittleworth. The common is owned and managed by Fittleworth Community & Parish Council who gave their permission to hold the walk there.
Here are some of the lichens we saw:
Hypogyny tubulosa Powder-headed Tube Lichen, on Pendunculate Oak
Cladonia furcata Many-forked Cladonia; growing on the ground of the heathland
The prefix Mitr- is a reference to a mitre, cap or headdress (and so, by implication, an indication of the shape of the fertile head or cap of this fungus), while the specific epithet paludosa means of swamp, marsh or bog.First Nature
Chelwood Vachery, a large country house on Ashdown Forest, was built in 1906 by Sir Stuart Samuel (MP). “Vachery” is probably a Norman French term meaning a dairy or cattle shelter. It is thought that cattle were kept here in Medieval times.
“In 1910, Samuel created a Forest Garden. It had four lakes and ponds, each with a weir and sluice. In 1925, the house was sold to one Nettlefold who engaged a famous landscape designer, Col. Gavin Jones, to construct a “Gorge” using limestone boulders from the Cheddar Gorge. It was to be an extension to the more formal gardens of the house“. Sussex Exclusive
The derelict remains of the pools and gorge of Gavin Jones’ 1925 landscaping of the Forest Garden, is weird enough without the presence of Bog Beacon, the saprotrophic fungus that has a “will-o’-the-wisp” feel.
“... 200 metres south of the mansion, within Vachery Wood, Gavin Jones’ spring-fed, artificially constructed gorge begins as a small stream between sandstone rocks … The gorge follows a course of around 250 metres via waterfalls and pools, … to a string of lakes on the Mill Brook, which forms the site’s south-west boundary” Parks and Gardens
I have only seen Bog Beacon once before: on a ghyll in a High Weald wood. I was very surprised to see it so abundant in a human-made ornamental pool.
“The role of these little club-like fungi in the natural world is that of recycler; they feed of rotting leaves and stems, helping to break them down into simple compounds that other plants can feed on. Distribution
Infrequent but widespread in Britain and Ireland, Bog Beacon also occurs throughout most of mainland Europe as well as parts of Asia.
What I can confirm from personal experience is that you will not find Bog Beacon where the habitat is unsuitable, but neither should you assume that where the habitat is suitably boggy with plenty of rotting vegetation this ascomycete will appear: more often than not it doesn’t.” First Nature
When I saw Bog Beacon before, in a ghyll wood near Crawley, I wondered how Bog Beacon stands up in the water, like Excaliburs held up by Ladies in the Lake.
I carefully fished one of the ca. 500 Bog beacons in the pool with a stick, and photographed it. Obvious really: they’re saprobic; so they are anchored by their mycelia to the thing they are digesting. Mine was anchored to a leaf.
On Thursday 20.03.25 I led a walk for the Lost Woods of the Low Weald and South Downs at Lag Wood; this is a private wood, and the owner gave us permission to do so, and she accompanied us. This was part of the National Lottery Open Week; an opportunity for The National Lottery-funded projects to give lottery players a reward; so all the participants had to bring a lottery ticket or scratch card that they had bought!
Here are a few of the many the lichens we saw.:
Normandina pulchella, Elf Ear lichen, growing on Myriocoleopsis minutissima Minute Pouncewort on Ash
Lecanora chlarotera on Pedunculate Oak
Amandinea punctata, Tiny Button Lichen on Hornbeam. Very similar to Lecidella eleachroma; separatable by chemical reagent spot test
I met with representatives from the Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Storrington and Arun Valley Region Group to plan the route and risk assessment for a community introduction to lichens walk on Saturday.
We saw some lovely common lichens, see below, and some rarer lichens like Cladonia foliacea, Summer Snow (named thus because the white underside of its squamules turn up when desiccated).
Common lichens are really important on introduction walks; as those are the lichens people are likely to see when they are walking through the countryside on their own. Moreover, knowledge of common lichens is ecologically useful. Common lichens can be used as markers of ecological wellbeing: the effects of climate change, and the outcomes of habitat management of the site, on lichen abundance, if people re-survey and note increases or deceases in abundance of common lichens.
To be able to recognise a common lichen and know its name, even if it’s just a vernacular English name, it is necessary to recognise it’s growth form (crustose, foliose, fruiticose, leprose and cladoniform) and the names of their parts e.g. thallus [body], apothecia [fruiting body of fungal spores], soredia [sexual propagules of fungal hyphae and alga/cyanobacterium cells], podetia [tube on a Cladonia], etc. This is the starting point for a love of lichens; add in a hand lens, and you are a budding amateur lichenologist.
Hemsworth Common has trees (mosyly Pendunculate Oak, Silver Birch, Scots Pine) on which there are many corticolous (tree living) lichens, and lowland heath, dominated by heathers and Billbury, amongst which grow many terriculous (ground living) lichens, especially Cladonia species
Two common lichens:
The VERY common Common Greenshield Lichen! Flavoparmelia caperata. But with apothecia, which is rare.
Evernia prunastri, Oak Moss Lichen – not a moss!
And a slightly rarer lichen, but one that really stands out on the bark of a tree: Chrysothrix candelaris, Gold Dust Lichen
and a rarer one:
Cladonia foliacea, Summer Snow
After the joint walk, I stayed on and continued surveying and found a Pendunculate Oak with a particular rich diversity of common lichens:
Lecidella eleachroma (black apothecia) and Lecanora carpinea.
Physcia aipolia (black apothecia) and Ramalina farinacea (with floury soredia on its lobes (straps))
Naetrocymbe punctiformis (central lichen with invisible thallus) this is very hard to identify
On the way to Hesworth Common, Fittleworth, to undertake a recce for a lichen walk there on Saturday, I took a detour to Coldwaltham from Pulborough (a four mile walk there and back to Pulborough). I went because I knew there was an ancient yew there; famous for being 3000 years old. It is clearly not 3000 years old, but it is a very old yew. I though it was an good candidate to have Zwackhia prosodea growing on it. I have seen Z. prosodea, growing on the ancient yew in East Chilton’s churchyard; it is a very characteristic lichen. I searched the British Lichen Society’s database: there are 174 records of the lichen in East and West Sussex; none of them on this yew; despite the churchyard being surveyed by Francis Rose in 1992.
But it was there!
A very southern lichen of dry bark on veteran trees, mainly Oak, often in mildly nutrient enriched habitats. Characterised by the bulky tall curved to serpentine lirellae with the disk a persistent slit and the dry bark habitat. British Lichen Society – Zwackhia prosodea
The churchyard at Coldwaltham contains a slightly controversial yew tree – slightly controversial because on occasions when experts have suggested the tree may not be quite as old as people believed it to be there has sometimes been a bit of a backlash from the villagers. Part of the reason for this is that the ancient tree is sometimes cited as evidence for a much older church on the current site. Another may be that some people claim that the tree as one of theoldest in the country – either way, it’s a magnificent being. It certainly looks pretty ancient.West Sussex Info Coldwaltham
Entry in the Ancient Yew Groupregister:Tree ID: 366 Yews recorded: Ancient 7m+ Tree girth: 1049cm Girth height: at 15cm Tree sex: femaleSource of earliest mention: 1885: Measured by Rev. W.H. Starling (1958 E.W. Swanton)
Under the Zwackhia prosodea was the lichen Opegrapha vermicellifera
Occurs in shaded, dry recesses of basic-barked trees, rare on rock. Smooth greyish thallus, usually sterile with small, prominent pycnidia with white or pale grey pruina. Pycnidia semi-immersed when young, chestnut brown with pale ostiole. Dorset Lichens – Opegrapha vermicellifera
On Friday, I visited Selwyns Wood to help their volunteers identify the lichens in the site. The list of what we found is at the end of this post
It was particularly pleasing to see Coniocarpon cinnabarinum, previously Arthonia cinnaborina, an old woodland indicator species. I see this lichen rarely; not because it is particularly rare, but because it is very difficult to see. “Can be common in old woodlands on shaded, smooth bark of young trees and branches” Dorset Lichens. This lichen is named after Cinnabar, the red ore of mercury.
Another lichen that was good to see was Thelotrema lepadinum, Bark Barnacles, an indicator of ancient woodland
Both of these lichens are indicators of ancient woodland even though they weren’t growing on ancient tress; both were on relatively recent on Sweet Chestnut, Castanea sativa.
In the area of heathland, as one would expect, there were Cladonia spp. growing on lignum, including Cladonia polydactyla
Cladonia caespiticia
and Cladonia squamosa
On the side of an enormous bundle-planted Beech, there was Elf Ear lichen, Normandina pulchella
I led a free lichen walk at Cow Wood (Nymans Woodland), Handcross on Monday. To find out about my next free lichen walk see: Sim’s Lichen Walks
Cow Wood is a stunning high weald ghyll wood, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which is of great importance for Atlantic bryophytes typically found in Atlantic Woodland, see SSSI citation.
We saw many interesting lichens, including sheets of Lecanactis abieitina covering whole sides of many Pedunculate Oaks, Quercus robur.
Lecanactis abietina with its “frothy beer cup” (Francis Rose) apothecia:
One of the participants spotted fertile Hypotrachyna revolutasensu lato,with abundant apothecia. British Lichen Society: apothecia rare:
We looked at a log pile of felled trees, covered in Ramalina farinacea, Evernia prunastri, Ramalina fastigiata, Parmotrema perlalatum and Flavoparmelia caperata. I knew from my recce of Cow Wood that there was some Usnea cornuta in this log pile – not much! – but the participants found it:
There is some Tunbridge Filmy Fern, Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, at Cow Wood; we found some that had the Cladonia caespiticia growing on it. I have never seen this combination before:
If you want to join my next free lichen walk, Saturday 12th April, RSPB Broadwater Warren, nr. Tunbridge Wells, email me: simeon[dot]elliott[at]proton[dot].me
On Friday I went with a friend to a High Weald ghyll wood between Crowborough and Greenbridge. The ghyll valley has many wet flushes in its steep banks formed by springs arising from the junction of porous rocks of the Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation and the impervious clays of the Wadhurst Clay Formation
The wet microclimate of ghyll woodlands is highly propitious for Atlantic (aka Oceanic) trophophytes: species occurrence and frequency may be the key to the systematic differentiation of ghyll woodland communities (Rose 1995; Rose and Patmore 1997) Burnside, Niall & Metcalfe, Daniel & Smith, Roger & Waite, Steve. (2006). Ghyll Woodlands of the Weald: Characterisation and Conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation. 15. 1319-1338. 10.1007/s10531-005-3875-5.
The Wealden ghyll woodlands support a rich flora of woodland bryophytes … They are particularly important for many oceanic species which are restricted in the south-east of England to the ghyll woodlands, and that are hundreds of kilometres from other British populations … The presence of rich assemblages of moisture-loving bryophytes in the ghyll woodlands is explained through the occurrence of suitable geology, topography and humidity, along with the likelihood that the ghylls experienced continuous tree cover during recent periods of deforestation … . Within many ghyll woodlands, sandstone outcrops and boulders combine with high relative humidity levels to create a damp sandstone substrate that is an internationally rare habitat type …. .The damp sandstone is home to a number of nationally rare ‘sandrock specialist’ bryophytes. The biodiversity of the Wealden ghyll woodlands: species richness, abundance and distribution patterns in a rare and fragmented habitat. Andrew R. Flint, A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2014
I visited Selwyns Wood (Sussex Wildlife Trust), ne Cross in Hand (accessible from Brighton on the 29A Brighton & Hove Buse) , yesterday to do a recce for a lichen walk I am leading for their Selwyns Wood’s volunteers. On the sides of one of its ghylls I saw lots (a forest) of Pellia epiphylla with sporophytes (white bendy stalks with black spherical spore capsules). These appear in February and March each year.
Pellia epiphylla, Common Pellia is a very common thalloid liverwort that can be found on the banks of ghylls across the high weald of Sussex, and in some low weald streams, where there are banks.
There are two types of liverwort: thalloid and leafy. In thalloid liverworts, the plant body (thallus) consists of flattened masses of cells. “A layer of photosynthetic tissue is underlain by nonphotosynthetic cells, with a final lower scaly layer that produces rhizoids, root-like structures that help hold the plant in place. Leafy liverworts look more like mosses, with obvious small leaves along a stem … Like other primitive plants, liverworts are not well adapted to dry situations, so they grow where the soil is moist and humidity high.Puget Sound University Thallose Liverworts
Common Pellia is monoecious, i.e. they have both the male and female reproductive structures in the same individual. The male structures are called antheridia, which contain the male sex cells, antherozoids, equipped with flagellae. When the antheridia burst from the antherozoids they swim into the female structures, the archegonia, and fertilise the egg cells.. This happens on wet winter days.
From the archegonia grow black capsules on white stalks; the capsules are full of spores developed form the fertilised eggs.
The capsule stalk grows to about 7 cm long, bending toward the light. Then the capsule explodes and splits into four sections, and the spores are thrown out by hair-like cells called elaters. Source of much of this information: Cabinet of Curiosities: Some Natural Wonders from North East England
Here is what is left of the capsule when the spores are gone; the fluffy filaments of the elaters.
If you want to see a “forest” of Common Pellia sporophytes, go to a high weald ghyll wood and look at the banks of the ghylls. Aside from the lovely Selwyns Wood (accessible by public transport on the 29A Brighton and Hove bus to Cross in Hand), you could go to Cow Wood (Nyman’s Woodlands) at Handrcoss, The Crowborough Ghyll, Ardingly Brook (in the valley at Wakehurst), Nap Wood near Tunbridge Wells, Fairlight Glen. Details of these locations and how to get these locations by public transport can be found on my nature by public transport website
I often lead introduction to lichen walks – either for community nature organisations; the Lost Woods of the Low Weald and South Downs (Woodland Trust); Changing Chalk (National Trust and Lewes Railway Land Wildlife Trust) or RSPB Pagham Harbour, or my own free lichen walks, see: Lichen Walks
I love doing them. I am a lichen enthusiast, definitely not a lichen expert, and I have a real love of engaging local communities in nature, particularly in lichens.
On Saturday I co-led a walk with a bryologist at a local nature reserve in West Hove. It is a downland site; with many Hawthorns, Blackthorns, Elder, and some Pedunculate Oaks, and a Sycamores, and a Walnut. It is a prime possible site for Golden-Eye Lichens, which have reintroduced themselves in Sussex, after being deemed extinct in Sussex, see 12 Golden-Eye Lichens on one Hawthorn. The resurgence of the once-thought-extinct Teloschistes chrysophthalmus on the South Downs. 06.04.24 I said that if we look hard we will probably find one there; and one of the participants found one on a Hawthorn.
One of the participants also found a very interesting fertile lichen on a branch of an Elder. I was ensure whether this was Punctelia subrudecta or Parmelia Sulcata; but chemical reagent spot tests confirmed that is was Parmelia Sulcata
On Sunday morning, I led a similar walk in an East Brighton. I always start with a brief introduction of lichen growth forms and the morphology of lichens, as these are key to identification. (I have copied the handout I use below). The vocabulary of lichens is hard, and mostly in scientific Latin. But it is heart warming when a participant, complete new to lichens, after an hour of lichen looking, can spot a tiny Hyperphyscia adglutinata that I hadn’t seen, next to a Lecidella elaeochroma, that she identified. She didn’t know what the lichen was but said: “Are those soredia on it.” Give people a hand lens and a bit of information and magic occurs!
Sim's Nature Notes 