New Year Plant Hunt and Conidiwhat?

 In the absence of plants flowering, I have been investigating lichens and fungi.  However, the BSBI have a New Year Plant Hunt which runs from 30 December to 2 January.  There is lots of information and ID guides here to get you going.  It's not just fun, it contributes to some research for the dates on which plants flower.

I must admit, as I live in a rather cold part of the country, the flowering plants at New Year are very few, but you might have more in your area.

I found an interesting Hazel twig last month. I don't see much Hazel locally, so I was pleased to find it as it  had a lichen species on it that I had not found before. Here's the twig:

Hazel twig

I know, it might not look that interesting, but wait and see..

First of all, just look at it in UV light. Some lichens glow bright orange, and some dull orange and some don't change at all

The new lichen for me was one called Arthonia radiata  which is covered in tiny black star shapes. These are the fruiting bodies that make spores.

One of the other lichens had the usual "jam tart" fruits but they had black spots on them.

I put one of the black spots under the microscope and this is what I saw:

I have made the photo quite big, but the black spots were tiny,  about a tenth of a millimetre or 100 microns.  Those little sausage shapes emerging from the hole are a kind of spore, called conidia. They are asexual spores - meaning they haven't got together with any other spores to swap DNA.  As you can see there are a lot of them! The black spots are a lichenicolous fungus, which just means that it is a fungus that likes to grow on a lichen.  For those that want to know, I think the lichen is Lecanora hybocarpa and the lichenicolous fungus (LF for short) is Vouauxiella ( that's a lot of vowels in a row!) lichenicola.

As life would have it, the next fungus I looked at was also producing conidia. This fungus was not a lichen, not even growing on a lichen, but on a dead birch stump.

The really abundant fungus is Turkey Tail, but the one I took home was a purple one on the left of this picture.

Purple jelly fungus (on the left)

When I squished a bit on a microscope slide, what did I see but .... 

...lots and lots of tiny conidia

A bit like buses... nothing comes along and then....

Cudweeds and Oxtongues - heading North!

I spent some of October down in West London, visiting family.  It was shirtsleeve weather down there, but is much colder up here now and we have had a few frosts and clear blue skies. This morning was particularly lovely with the frost on the grasses on the golf course.

Whilst down south, I refound  a plant that is very scarce in Scotland. I had found it in the same area in 2017 when visiting.  It was growing in the road by the kerb, so I had no hesitation in picking a sample to try and ID.  It looked like a cudweed, which are greyish fairly nondescript plants, and several varieties grow around Newtonmore.  This one just looked different to the ones I was familiar with. Here are some pictures from 2017:

2017 photos showing features for ID

When I identified the plant in 2017 it turned out to be Jersey Cudweed (was Gnaphalium luteoalbum now Laphangium luteoalbum) and had "Schedule 8" next to its name.  I'd never heard of Schedule 8 and had to look it up and was horrified to find that it was illegal to pick it! However, I think this is an example of legislation that is now out of date - although it was once confined to a small area of England, it is spreading.  It likes a sandy habitat and when I have seen it , it has been growing in the sand between paviours in drives that have block paving.  Presumably, wherever the sand was sourced from, it already had lots of seeds in it.  I saw the plant this year, in a different spot and, yet again, it was in paving.

Jersey Cudweed in paving

Distribution of Jersey Cudweed (from BSBI) showing mainly Southern distribution but spreading.

On this year's visit, I also found another unfamiliar plant.  I am sorry there is only one photo but I was mainly keeping up with grandchildren so no time to linger -  I just picked a bit to look at later!

It had a yellow flower and rather strange bumps on the leaves, and in the centre of each was a prickle.  This turned out to be Bristly Ox-tongue which has the difficult to pronounce scientific name- Helminthotheca echioides.

This is another southern species that is spreading north

Distribution of Bristly Oxtongue

Floods, Fans and Stagshorns

 Over a week ago, we had several days of continuous rain (while the South of England had a heat wave!) which resulted in the Spey flooding the adjoining land.  Flooding is a regular occurrence here as Badenoch (the name of our local area) is Baideanach in Gaidhlig which means the drowned land.  Usually it happens in the spring when rain coincides with melting snow. Newtonmore escaped with just the lower Golf Curse being flooded but it was more dramatic in Kingussie where the Shinty pitch was covered in at least a couple of metres of water, and we couldn't resist going to have a look.

We also went to look at the Spey from the Bridge to the South of Newtonmore and the mosses on the parapet looked particularly good with drops of water on their fruiting spikes.

Mosses on Spey Bridge parapet

Although I was aware that different lichens have a preference for either acid or alkaline substrates (the surfaces they grow on), I had never really thought about mosses doing a similar thing.  Mortar and concrete are alkaline and when I looked at a stone wall in the village, it was obvious that the mosses were preferring the mortared areas, and the lichens favoured the stone.

Mosses preferring to grow on the mortar

A few more fungi have appeared in the garden.  Some were the traditional toadstool type like these brightly coloured waxcaps. 

Butter Waxcap (Hygrocybe ceracea) and Scarlet Waxcap (Hygrocybe coccinea)

There were also some more unusual forms.  There was one that was a completely new form for me.

Looking in the books I thought it might be Violet Coral which sounded quite exciting as it is uncommon. I was wrong - it is an earthfan and has the less alluring name of Stinking Earthfan (Thelephora palmata).   To quote the Collins Complete Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools, it is a "Coral-like fungus with a repulsive smell of putrid garlic." I don't think it was that bad but it did smell like drains or a dog-poo bin! It is widespread but also uncommon so I should be grateful that it decided to come up in my "meadow" aka lawn.  Thanks go to Liz Holden for the IDs.

There are some common fungi with finger like growths.  This one was growing on a slice of wood:

Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon)

It looks like the snuffed out wick of a candle and grows on deciduous dead wood.

Another fingerlike fungus is growing out of a dead tree by Loch Imrich.

This is Yellow Stagshorn (Calocera viscosa) which is really common on dead wood, but on conifers this time.

NPMS and toadstools - large and tiny

 In a post a couple of years ago I mentioned that I survey plots for a scheme called  the NPMS (the National Plant Monitoring Scheme).  You can read more about it on their website here. Ideally, the plots are surveyed every year, twice a year, and I have endeavoured to do that for the 8 years  since the scheme started.  There are 1,207 squares being monitored and  I was rather surprised to find that of the hundreds of volunteer surveyors only 40 have manged to send in data every year.  As I was one of them, I even got a mention in the 2022 Annual Report.  Probably the only bit of botanical fame I will ever have!

On my visit to my plot up on Craggan (a local hill) there were a few fungi that caught my eye.  I don't have names for them but could admire them, none the less.  The first was a tiny toadstool with frilly points:

The others that caught my eye were much bigger and more colourful.  The first one was  about 4 cm across and has really wide gills.  Maybe a waxcap?

The second group were much bigger. That's my boot for scale.

 Most of the fungi we notice have those big fruiting bodies we call mushrooms or toadstools.  The majority of the fungus is underground in a web called the mycelium.  The fruiting bodies are produced  to manufacture and distribute their spores.

In the last photo you can see there is a rock with white patches.  Those white patches are lichens.  It might surprise you to know that they are also fungi.  Lichens are fungi which also have another organism inside, usually an alga.  Lichens often have different fruiting bodies called apothecia which look like little jam tarts or wine gums growing on the lichen and have the job of manufacturing spores. However, there are some lichens which actually grow tiny toadstools and I spotted one on a rock on my way home.

This interesting lichen is only about 5cm across and looks like a green crust with some pinkish blobs.  It gets more interesting as you get closer and look at those pink blobs.

The pink blobs are the heads of teeny tiny mushrooms just a few millimetres tall!  They also have the job of producing spores. Once you have your eye in, this lichen (Baeomyces rufus) is quite common locally in shady dampish woodland.

Finally, from rather pleasing facets of nature, to a not so pleasant one from my garden.  You may have read in previous posts that I have the misfortune to have New Zealand Flatworms in my garden and I wage a constant war of attrition against them as they eat earthworms almost to the point of  extinction.  I shifted a pile of fencing planks and found plenty of NZ flatworms underneath and dozens of their eggs, which look like shiny blackcurrants.  Each egg has several baby worms inside.  One had just been laid and I think the white patch on the flatworm must be its egg laying opening as I have not seen this before (and believe me, I have seen hundreds of flatworms!).

A NZ flatworm and a fresh egg

Loch Vaa and Lochain Uvie

Last week I joined some other keen botanists and went to Loch Vaa to look for some specific plants that are not found much locally. Ian Green, who is the BSBI recorder for vice-county 95 (Moray) led the walk as he knew what we were looking for, whereas the rest of us had not even heard of the plants!

Loch Vaa  is North of Aviemore and is just behind Laggantygown Cemetery so there is convenient car parking. It was a stunningly sunny day and the loch was quite low, exposing a stony shore.

Loch Vaa

The water was crystal clear and there were shoals of small fishes.

   There were two plants that we were looking for, both related to a more common species.  The first was a hybrid Spearwort.  Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula) has a flower like a buttercup but grows in damp or wet areas and has thin leaves.

Lesser Spearwort with narrow leaves (the broad leaves belong to the pondweed)

The plant we were looking for was a hybrid - a cross between  Lesser Spearwort and Creeping Spearwort with the unwieldy name of Ranunculus x levenensis.  But Creeping Spearwort  is an extremely rare plant and does not grow in Moray.  So how did the hybrid get here?  The best explanation is that it was brought in on the feet of visiting waterfowl.  As it roots readily from the stem, this would help it get established.  We found quite a few plants but it is maybe not the most impressive sight .

Hybrid Spearwort

In fact, most of the plants we concentrated on were rather small.  The next on the list was Small Water-pepper (Persicaria minor),  which prefers to grow in more southerly areas and Loch Vaa is the farthest North that it has been found.

Small Water-pepper

It is like Redshank (Persicaria maculosa) which is much bigger and sometimes has a black blotch on the leaves.  It is very common and I have seen it growing at the side of the pavement in Newtonmore Main Street.  I was quite surprised to find I don't have a photo of it!

 Another plant I had not seen before was Marsh Speedwell (Veronica scutellata).   This one had blue flowers but they can be pink or white.

Marsh Speedwell

Inspired by the trip, I thought I would visit Lochain Uvie (just at the base of Creag Dubh) to see if I could find the same plants, as when the loch is low, there is a stony bit of shore. 

Lochain Uvie looking West

Lochain Uvie with Creag Dubh in the background.

I did not find the two rarities as the stony bit was covered in grass.  But there were other compensations. In a dried out boggy area I found a lot of Great Sundew (Drosera anglica).  "Great " is a bit of an exaggeration as it is tiny!  It is an insectivorous plant and catches insects on its sticky hairs.  The leaves are longer and more spoonlike than its even smaller relative, Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia).

Great Sundew

It does have flowers but they were still in bud.

Another bog plant had finished flowering but its seeds were a bright, bright orange.

Bog Asphodel

And finally, there were plenty of grasshoppers pinging about when you walked through the grass. So a very pleasant trip even if I did not find the rarities.

A Yellow Lichen

Dry stone walls are a great place to look for lichens.  Usually, I pick one that is on the moor but whilst waiting in Kingussie, I looked at the one by the Duke of Gordon Hotel.

One of the capstones stood out from the rest, as it was the only one with patches of yellow.

The different stone                                  With a ruler marked in cm             Lichen at the top, moss underneath

Looking more closely, there are round orange fruiting bodies (apothecia) which is where the lichen produces spores. I collected one by chipping it off and folding it into a post-it note so I didn't lose it.

A tiny apothecium - about 0.5mm

I also added some  small drops of chemicals. Bleach did not change colour but potassium hydroxide gave an immediate purple colour. When I got home, I sliced that tiny orange apothecium, trying to get a thin slice so the light of my microscope would shine through it.

Here is the slice, and the tiny circles are the spores which are clustered in sacs called asci.  To see the shapes better, you add a few more chemicals  - in this case some fountain pen ink!

Here is a picture of one of the spores showing its odd structure.

A lichen spore - about 12 thousandths of a millimetre long

It is like a dumbbell and that helped with the identification as different lichens have different looking spores.  I think the lichen is called Caloplaca flavovirescens (no common name, I'm afraid).  It is not common round here as it likes a basic (alkaline) rock and most of our rocks are acid.  But that one capstone must be different.

Yellow flowers

 The places  have visited recently seem to be full of yellow flowers.  There was a visit to a fantastic garden in Nethybridge and, more prosaically, exploring behind the Badenoch centre and looking at a cutting on the A9! But for a curious botanist/nature enthusiast there is always something to notice and learn from.

The garden in Nethybridge was open to raise money for charity, and it is always a pleasure to be able to explore someone else's garden and even better, there were cream teas...

Peacock butterfly and a very tattered Tortoiseshell - correction - it's a Comma

There were some large yellow flowers that the butterflies loved. The flower is Inula or Elecampane.  The Peacock butterflies looked fresh and iridescent whereas the poor old tortoiseshell  must have overwintered. UPDATE Thanks to Audrey for pointing out that it is not a tortoiseshell but a Comma.

Now for the less exciting visits.  I had recorded the plants behind the Badenoch Centre in the Spring, but there was a Hypericum (St John's Wort) that I could not record because I needed to see the flowers to narrow it down to the species. It is finishing flowering right now so I was just in time.

It turned out to be Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) which was a new find for me. The red fruits turn black (you can see some on the right hand side of the photo). Another yellow flower which is growing around the Badenoch Centre is Sticky Groundsel (Senecio viscosus).  It is a bit like Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) but is taller, has petals and is ... sticky.

Here are the two together for comparison:

Sticky Groundsel on the left of each picture, and Groundsel on the right

The reason it is sticky is easier to see with some magnification The stem is coated with hairs which have blobs of sticky liquid on the ends.

The sticky hairs seem to have caught a few things

The last visit was to  the A9, a cutting where I have been before, but decided to revisit as parts of it have had new topsoil added, though I have no idea why.  The slopes have been covered with yellow flowers for months. The older areas look brown as the flowers are now fruiting, but the newly topsoiled areas are bright yellow.

Nearly all the plants are crucifers - the cabbage family that has 4 petalled flowers. Much of it was oil seed Rape (Brassica napus) and Treacle mustard (Erysimum cheiranthoides)

These yellow crucifers are hard to tell apart unless you have both the flowers and the seed pods.

As a bit of relief from the relentless yellow flowers, now is a good time to see Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis).  It is mostly blue but can be found in shades of pink as well.

I have not quite finished with yellow things, but next time it will be a lichen!