Of mossy things

It was Tennyson who wrote in 1842:


                  In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love...


                                                                                       Locksley Hall


It can only be an oversight which caused him to overlook the obvious corollary:


                 And in the autumn of his years his mind then turns to thoughts of moss.


Surely it would not have upset the trochaic metre of the poem too much.


Among the birds the summer migrants have fled; most flowers have withered away, their work done; the bees have departed in sympathy but may yet return to the ivy for a final feast. And it is at this time of the year that mosses and liverworts come into their own. In Britain we have over 750 species of moss alone and, at the last count, 297 liverworts. Enough to keep the enthusiast busy for a lifetime. I do intend to keep my eyes open for these neglected plants, which should be more obvious now, following a series of very wet days.


However, as I pointed out in a blog some years ago (7 November, 2016) Northamptonshire has a very poor bryophyte flora, reflecting the county's lack of mountain, moorland, heath, bog or, of course, coast. So when I set out this morning it was with realistically limited expectations.


I was on the look out for mosses but the first thing to catch my eye, growing on an old fence, was a lichen or, to be more precise, a Cladonia. The trumpet-shaped structures are the podetia and the way in which the cups (scyphi) expand rather abruptly from the stem (rather like a golf tee) suggests that it is Cladonia fimbriata.




Cladonia fimbriata is a common and widespread lichen, usually on wood

rather than stone. Christchurch Drive, Daventry. 21 October, 2019

Despite being on alert for mosses it was another lichen which next came to my attention. Lecanora chlarotera often forms roughly oval patches on bark - in this case an ash tree. As the tree grows and the trunk expands the patch of lichen is often split from top to bottom. It is tolerant of pollution and is frequent even in supermarket car parks.

Even trees in supermarket car parks are likely to bear a few patches of

Lecanora chlarotera. Christchurch Road, Daventry. 21 October, 2019

Then there were the mosses. Some, like this Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, were easily identified. It is the bane of many a gardener, making large patches in any lawn where drainage is not perfect. It is know as Springy Turf-moss in the U.K. but this no more than a book-name; gardeners have more earthy names for it!

Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus. The oddly-shaped leaves are bent, pointing

down the stem and giving a star-like appearance. Christchurch Drive.

21 October, 2019

Avid readers of this blog will be in agonies of expectation, wondering what else my gimlet eye hit upon. I share those feelings but we must all wait until I find the time to get my specimens under a microscope.