Inchnadamph - or what do lichen enthusiasts do all week?(Part 1)

 As promised, here is a bit more about the week I spent at the British Lichen Society field meeting at Inchnadamph with other lichen enthusiasts. First of all, where is Inchnadamph?  It is on the NW coast of Scotland, inland from Lochinver and on the shores of Loch Assynt.  Its main claim to fame is its geology, something called The Moine Thrust, when 2 continents collided and the older rocks from one side were pushed over newer rocks on the other side. This caused confusion in late 1800s as the tectonic plate mechanisms had not been postulated, and to add to their confusion the arrangement of older over younger rocks was repeated.  If you want a much better explanation have a look at this web page:

The Moine Thrust: An idea that unravelled mountains

This has resulted in  a wide variety of rocks all visible in a small area, from limestone (basic, i.e. alkaline) to gneiss (acidic)  plus some wet forests. This variety of surfaces produces a wide variety of lichen species, which can be quite fussy about  what they like to grow on. Something for everyone.

We arrived on a Sunday and people settled into their accommodation.  Most of us were staying in and around Inchnadamph Lodge, and we set up our microscopes there.  The general format is to meet for breakfast, then go somewhere in groups and then come back at night for an evening meal and to look at any lichens we might have collected. Prior to the week, the local organiser Andy Acton had done a lot of work seeking out suitable sites and getting permissions from landowners. The microscopes are needed as many lichens can't be identified just by looking, you need chemical testing and to check spores.

The weather forecast was dire - rain, rain, rain - but fortunately it worked out much better than that and there were long spells when it didn't rain during the day.

View from the back of the Lodge showing the track up the glen

The first day, I went for a walk up the local glen, Glen Traligill.  Some groups didn't get past the stone wall shown in the photograph by the track! We went further up the glen and looked at some limestone crags.  As there is no limestone locally, most of the lichens on the rocks were unfamiliar to me. The nearest I get to a limestone substrate locally is mortar or concrete. Two of the more memorable ones were Placynthium nigrum , a black crust with a startling deep blue border, and Gyalecta jenensis with orange apothecia with frilly margins.

Placynthium nigrum

Gyalecta jenensis

Lichens that grow on rocks are called saxicolous. Some also grow on soil, and they are then termed terricolous. The bare-ish soil on top of some hummocks was worth investigation.

Lichenologists lying down on the job!

Here are some of the lichens we found:

A selection of terricolous lichens

The greenish one on the far left and right has tiny maroon mushrooms on it and is called Baeomyces rufus.  The white one in the middle is Dibaeis baeomyces, which can also have tiny mushrooms but none had developed yet. Another find was Pycnothelia papillaris which as tiny bumps like nipples.

Pycnothela papillaris

Day 2 was a trip alongside Loch Assynt. There is a joke about botanists and lichenologists that they never get out of the car park (so much to see!), though we did get as far as the first gate before stopping! Lichens don't mind growing on bare wood (lignum).

The views were stunning though they had to compete with scrutinising the rocks:

This rock had Placopsis lambii with orange apothecia like jelly tots and greenish  Lecanora intricata.

From left: 3 Placopsis lambii pictures and on right, greenish Lecanora intricata

The wildlife was attracted to a reddish rucksack.

Day 3 was rather wet so I bowed out and went to a tea-shop with my husband!

As this is getting a bit long, I will continue the saga in a second post.