Lichens galore

I spent the afternoon with one of our local Lichen specialists looking at an old ash tree that had to be felled to let more light into a key butterfly clearing at the nature reserve. She was still examining branches with her hand lens when I had to leave, but had already recorded over 30 species. I got quite keen again, having started to look at lichens 4 years ago, but not kept it up. This branch, no thicker than one of my fingers, shows the sort of diversity that can be found in the ash canopy - four different species within just over 2 square centimetres.