Tuesday 22 September 2015

Toninia aromatica

I spent some time with this one and a had difficulty coming to a satisfactory conclusion. All the clues were giving me several options none of which seemed right at first but a photo of a Toninia following a saxicolous crack got me finally to the right group. Other groups considered were Catillaria, Cliostomum and Lecania. The reaction of K+ y put Cliostomum in the picture but it turned out to be a red herring. The spores are 17µm long and 3-septate. The paraphyses are with a swollen apex with pigmented tip.

Toninia aromatica

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Rinodina bischoffii

A lichen that looks on first inspection to be lecanorine but the apothecia section shows it to be lecideine. The 16x11µm spores are quite distinctive so getting to Rinodina was quite easy.

Rinodina bischoffii

Rinodina bischoffii spores

Friday 4 September 2015

Oxyrrhynchium hians

Oxyrrhynchium hians is a common pleurocarp which can be identified quite readily with care and a good hand lens in the field. With the example below I could see through the hand lens the nerve extending past the half way mark but not reaching the tip and the margin of the leaf toothed. A good feature for O.hians is the leaves being spaced out along the stem.

Oxyrrhynchium hians leaf

Oxyrrhynchium hians