Collecting lichens

Nice apothecia. Image by Lairich Rig.

Although you may remember the stupendous trees dripping with lichens at (the very protected) Wistman's Wood on your Dartmoor field trip, there are plenty of lichens in much more accessible places - in fact, there a lot of species even on campus.

Don't forget your handlens (x10 will do). It is the duty of every lichenophile to be shot weird looks by members of the public while squinting through a handlens at apparently uninteresting treetrunks, boulders and gravestones. Don't be embarrassed, they're the ones missing out. It's only when you look at lichens under magnification that you realise how curious and amazing their forms are.

You can read my advice about getting landowner's permission before collecting, which is essential for protected areas like nature reserves and SSSIs - but remember you will be sure to find plenty of common species everywhere. Common sense applies about the amount you take - as the British Lichen Society recommends, leave plenty behind so the species can survive.

Some of them will be firmly attached to walls and pavements of course, and I don't particularly recommend chiselling them out. That's why, although there is an FSC guide to churchyard lichens which you would surely enjoy using, it won't be of great use when it comes to making your collection. You need to find some you can take home.

But you can find portable lichens in all sorts of habitats - on soil on heaths or roadsides, on dead trees in a wood, amongst plants on calcareous grassland, clinging to pebbles on a beach.

Lichen-covered pebbles. CC image by Roger Cornfoot.

Lichens on twigs are particularly easy to collect as you'll find fallen twigs that can be cut into lengths at home - there's no need to remove the lichens and risk damaging them. Many species are of course embedded in their substrate - if they're on the trunk of a large tree you might want to take a sliver of bark off with a knife. Even if they're foliose they may still be connected quite firmly at their base and you will want to ensure you have this as it may show useful characteristics for identification.

However there are issues you just need to be aware of with knives, beyond the obvious health and safety ones - please read what I've written on the fungi collecting page. 

As you collect you'll need to make a note of where you're finding your specimens - for lichens the habitat, substrate (and maybe aspect) are important. One way to keep everything organised is to make some lichen packets and give them numbers.

It's much better to use paper packets than plastic bags, because any moisture won't stay trapped and turn your lichens mouldy. You should open the packets when you get home and give the lichens an airing. Then they should be fine - they don't need any special preservation techniques.

Read on for more about how to identify your lichens

and how you might present them. 

Lovely lovely Cladonia. CC image by James Lindsey.