Lichen time

All those brash, showy flowers are just about over...and insects are getting to be difficult to find...it must be time for the so called 'lower plants', fungi and lichens. I can never pass this old elder tree in one of the hedges at the nature reserve without having a detailed look at the wonderful world of mosses, fungi and lichens it supports. I could examine the folds, cracks and crevices of its trunk all day.