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| Ramalina farinacea, a surprisingly fluffy (fruticose) lichen that can be found on a tree near you. Image by MMParedes |
I expect no-one sensible would leave collecting things so late. But should you be in such a position (being charitable, there are many reasons why you could be, maybe your previous efforts have gone hopelessly awry) - then I think lichens could be a good choice. You're still going to have to make a good attempt at your log book to show how thorough your identifying is. But you won't have problems of preservation for one thing. And with a lens or microscope, some species are identifiable relatively painlessly, especially if you can narrow them down by habitat (i.e. the hardcore selection that can tolerate urban twigs).
I managed to find eight species pretty quickly. And the student had six others I didn't have, also collected around Bristol. Some were a bit of a pain but we were reasonably sure about 90% of them. Fourteen species wouldn't make an unimpressive collection.
We used the FSC fold-out twig key to start with, and combined this with the keys and pictures in Dobson.
But you could also try the NHM's online key or this downloadable key to lichens on trees.
Then there's always Alan Silverside's website for more photographs and descriptions, once you've narrowed things down. I've also been looking at Jenny Seawright's Irish Lichens website (also with photos and descriptions) and Mike Sutcliffe's British Lichens site (mostly photos).
But do please come in and use the microscopes - it's so much easier to see what you're looking at, and in any case the lichens are so lovely magnified.
I'm not saying lichens are easy, they really aren't. But if you collect them in the city, it's likely that they'll be among a select group and that will make identifying them a bit easier.
(And for those out of town, I've found another online key. Brian Eversham has a key to heathland lichens but this is only for lowland species.)
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