Anthony Speca | Aspen Ecology
@aspenecology.com
Lichen surveying, consultancy, training and education. County Lichen Recorder for Suffolk. Posts mainly about lichens, and occasionally other life-forms, especially if they're overlooked. Rocks now and then, too. Founder @anthonyspeca.bsky.social.
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Announcing another chance to learn #lichens online! My next 'Lichens for Beginners' course starts in January. Perfect for anyone just discovering these unique and beautiful life-forms. All you need to know to understand lichens and identify common species. Join me! aspenecology.com/lichens-for-...
2/2 …conditions, when thallus is very dry, even if only to rule out T placodioides definitively? This lichen likes damp, buffered siliceous stone, so substrate and habitat seems fitting. But I wouldn't be surprised if your controlled C-test remains negative. Sorry I can't help more at this stage!
January 13, 2026 at 9:03 AM
2/2 …conditions, when thallus is very dry, even if only to rule out T placodioides definitively? This lichen likes damp, buffered siliceous stone, so substrate and habitat seems fitting. But I wouldn't be surprised if your controlled C-test remains negative. Sorry I can't help more at this stage!
1/2 Thanks, Peter. Photos can be deceiving, but yours puts me in mind of (perhaps) Lecanora sorelifera or Trapelia placodioides. But former is UV+ orange and latter C+ red. Of those tests, C-reaction is most likely to go wrong as it's weaker and more fleeting. Perhaps test with C under controlled…
January 13, 2026 at 9:03 AM
1/2 Thanks, Peter. Photos can be deceiving, but yours puts me in mind of (perhaps) Lecanora sorelifera or Trapelia placodioides. But former is UV+ orange and latter C+ red. Of those tests, C-reaction is most likely to go wrong as it's weaker and more fleeting. Perhaps test with C under controlled…
3/3 …species grow into predatory jellyfish! (Photos here show medusa of Aequorea, not Hydrallmania.) Medusae from different colonial polypoids mate to produce new generation of polyps, which disperse to find substrate on which to anchor and build complex polypoid structure, completing life-cycle.
January 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
3/3 …species grow into predatory jellyfish! (Photos here show medusa of Aequorea, not Hydrallmania.) Medusae from different colonial polypoids mate to produce new generation of polyps, which disperse to find substrate on which to anchor and build complex polypoid structure, completing life-cycle.
2/3 …connect individual polyps into coordinated organism. Polyps filter-feed from water using stinging filaments, sharing nutrients via hydrocauli. But some polyps specialise as reproductive organs, budding off main colonial structure to become 'medusae'. Medusae float free of colony, and in some…
January 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
2/3 …connect individual polyps into coordinated organism. Polyps filter-feed from water using stinging filaments, sharing nutrients via hydrocauli. But some polyps specialise as reproductive organs, budding off main colonial structure to become 'medusae'. Medusae float free of colony, and in some…
1/3 This is Hydrallmania fulcata from Chapel St Leonards beach, Lincolnshire. Not plant! Rather #hydroid: colonial marine animal related to #jellyfish, #anemones, #coral. This structure is chitinous skeleton of its polypoid stage, which grows anchored to sea floor. Branching 'tubes' or hydrocauli…
January 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
1/3 This is Hydrallmania fulcata from Chapel St Leonards beach, Lincolnshire. Not plant! Rather #hydroid: colonial marine animal related to #jellyfish, #anemones, #coral. This structure is chitinous skeleton of its polypoid stage, which grows anchored to sea floor. Branching 'tubes' or hydrocauli…
January 10, 2026 at 5:18 PM
First #churchyard survey of St Edmund's, Bungay, now completed. Also my first as Suffolk #Lichen Recorder. 34 taxa recorded, but there are probably more there. Two 'nationally scarce' species found: Bagliettoa calciseda and Flavoplaca dichroa. But they're not really scarce, merely under-recorded!
January 10, 2026 at 5:16 PM
First #churchyard survey of St Edmund's, Bungay, now completed. Also my first as Suffolk #Lichen Recorder. 34 taxa recorded, but there are probably more there. Two 'nationally scarce' species found: Bagliettoa calciseda and Flavoplaca dichroa. But they're not really scarce, merely under-recorded!
Another #sponge skeleton: this one found washed up on Chapel St Leonards beach, Lincolnshire, in late October. Perhaps more graceful in form than specimen below, but close up it shows same remarkably intricate structure of interlocking spicules composed of spongin (type of protein), silica or both.
January 10, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Another #sponge skeleton: this one found washed up on Chapel St Leonards beach, Lincolnshire, in late October. Perhaps more graceful in form than specimen below, but close up it shows same remarkably intricate structure of interlocking spicules composed of spongin (type of protein), silica or both.
Tagging into post above ⬆️ @britishlichensociety.org.uk #lichenGBI
January 9, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Tagging into post above ⬆️ @britishlichensociety.org.uk #lichenGBI
New #lichen factsheet and galleries! Tephromela atra. Common all across Britain. Can be confused with Lecanora gangaleiodes, which looks similar if slightly greyer. Quick field section tells them apart: T atra apothecia are purple-brown inside, L gangaleiodes green. aspenecology.com/tephromela-a...
January 9, 2026 at 6:13 PM
New #lichen factsheet and galleries! Tephromela atra. Common all across Britain. Can be confused with Lecanora gangaleiodes, which looks similar if slightly greyer. Quick field section tells them apart: T atra apothecia are purple-brown inside, L gangaleiodes green. aspenecology.com/tephromela-a...
Correction: the sponge skeleton is composed of 'spicules' of the protein spongin, similar to keratin, or silicon dioxide, or both.
January 3, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Correction: the sponge skeleton is composed of 'spicules' of the protein spongin, similar to keratin, or silicon dioxide, or both.
Sorry about the stray link in the first of the two posts above. I'd also meant to point out that other parts of England/UK have 'church recorders' like Simon Knott in East Anglia. That link was to John Allen's index of Sussex churches, though unlike Knott's it covers only Anglican churches.
January 3, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Sorry about the stray link in the first of the two posts above. I'd also meant to point out that other parts of England/UK have 'church recorders' like Simon Knott in East Anglia. That link was to John Allen's index of Sussex churches, though unlike Knott's it covers only Anglican churches.
Many thanks, Nicholas. And work enough for years to come!
January 3, 2026 at 10:38 AM
Many thanks, Nicholas. And work enough for years to come!
2/2 …there wasn't a similar index for Suffolk on GENUKI (hence my recourse to Simon Knott), there does appear to be a full UK church database: www.genuki.org.uk/index.php/ch.... Unfortunately, it appears searchable only up to 3 mi from a specified location, and there may be issues of data copyright.
GENUKI: Genuki Church Directory - Initial Search
Genuki Church Directory - Initial Search
www.genuki.org.uk
January 3, 2026 at 10:37 AM
2/2 …there wasn't a similar index for Suffolk on GENUKI (hence my recourse to Simon Knott), there does appear to be a full UK church database: www.genuki.org.uk/index.php/ch.... Unfortunately, it appears searchable only up to 3 mi from a specified location, and there may be issues of data copyright.
1/2 Thanks, Chris. Perhaps there is. I was inspired by similar work undertaken by Norfolk County Lichen Recorder @robyaxley.bsky.social for VC27 and VC28. Rather than use Simon Knott's index for Norfolk as I did for Suffolk, Rob used a Norfolk church index on the genealogy website GENUKI. But while…
Sussex Parish Churches – A primary source of information on Churches in East and West Sussex
sussexparishchurches.org
January 3, 2026 at 10:37 AM
1/2 Thanks, Chris. Perhaps there is. I was inspired by similar work undertaken by Norfolk County Lichen Recorder @robyaxley.bsky.social for VC27 and VC28. Rather than use Simon Knott's index for Norfolk as I did for Suffolk, Rob used a Norfolk church index on the genealogy website GENUKI. But while…
January 2, 2026 at 5:44 PM
2/2 …fairly easily separated. Only L abietina has C+ red reaction from lecanoric acid in pruina (powdery coating) on pycnidia (asexual fruiting bodies). It also goes very striking K/UV(wet)+ true blue from unknown substances, unlike I subabietinum, which goes K/UV(wet)+ mauve from confluentic acid.
January 2, 2026 at 5:44 PM
2/2 …fairly easily separated. Only L abietina has C+ red reaction from lecanoric acid in pruina (powdery coating) on pycnidia (asexual fruiting bodies). It also goes very striking K/UV(wet)+ true blue from unknown substances, unlike I subabietinum, which goes K/UV(wet)+ mauve from confluentic acid.
1/2 This is Lecanactis abietina on oak trunk, Old Wood LWS, Shropshire. Widespread and fairly common #lichen in Britain, but this one's first for hectad. Found on mature trees with dry, acid bark. Easy to confuse with similar Opegrapha vermicellifera and (much rarer) Inoderma subabietinum. But also…
January 2, 2026 at 5:44 PM
1/2 This is Lecanactis abietina on oak trunk, Old Wood LWS, Shropshire. Widespread and fairly common #lichen in Britain, but this one's first for hectad. Found on mature trees with dry, acid bark. Easy to confuse with similar Opegrapha vermicellifera and (much rarer) Inoderma subabietinum. But also…
2/2 …bodies and filtering out nutrients. But my find is just some unfortunate sponge's skeleton: old whelk shell on which it was anchored probably came loose from seabed, setting it adrift to wash up on shore. But how intricate and complex! Composed of interlocking 'spicules' of calcium carbonate.
January 2, 2026 at 5:09 PM
2/2 …bodies and filtering out nutrients. But my find is just some unfortunate sponge's skeleton: old whelk shell on which it was anchored probably came loose from seabed, setting it adrift to wash up on shore. But how intricate and complex! Composed of interlocking 'spicules' of calcium carbonate.
1/2 Found on Huttoft Beach, Lincolnshire, in late October. Though they're sessile and seem like plants, #sponges are in fact animals. Perhaps most ancient animals still living, having emerged ~800 million years ago! They're essentially one-way siphons that feed by passing seawater through their…
January 2, 2026 at 5:09 PM
1/2 Found on Huttoft Beach, Lincolnshire, in late October. Though they're sessile and seem like plants, #sponges are in fact animals. Perhaps most ancient animals still living, having emerged ~800 million years ago! They're essentially one-way siphons that feed by passing seawater through their…
2/2 …searched each church on Google Maps to obtain lat/long, and to eliminate demolished or lost churches (cross-checking against Simon's descriptions). Finally, I used Google Streetview to eliminate any new-build churches unlikely to be of lichenological interest, and QGIS to produce the map.
January 2, 2026 at 4:46 PM
2/2 …searched each church on Google Maps to obtain lat/long, and to eliminate demolished or lost churches (cross-checking against Simon's descriptions). Finally, I used Google Streetview to eliminate any new-build churches unlikely to be of lichenological interest, and QGIS to produce the map.
1/2 Thanks, Chris. I used the church index compiled by Simon Knott, East Anglian 'field church-ologist': www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/churchlists..... Only a few churchyards and cemeteries in the BLS database weren't also on Simon's list: mostly churchyards in Norfolk but within VC25 or VC26. I then…
THE SUFFOLK CHURCHES SITE
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk
January 2, 2026 at 4:46 PM
1/2 Thanks, Chris. I used the church index compiled by Simon Knott, East Anglian 'field church-ologist': www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/churchlists..... Only a few churchyards and cemeteries in the BLS database weren't also on Simon's list: mostly churchyards in Norfolk but within VC25 or VC26. I then…
December 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Passing time on NYE mapping Suffolk churchyards with known or potential #lichen interest. Over 450 churchyards have records, thanks mainly to decades of work by Chris Hitch, my predecessor as County Lichen Recorder. Hope to have even fraction of his success with ~130 churchyards yet to be surveyed!
December 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Passing time on NYE mapping Suffolk churchyards with known or potential #lichen interest. Over 450 churchyards have records, thanks mainly to decades of work by Chris Hitch, my predecessor as County Lichen Recorder. Hope to have even fraction of his success with ~130 churchyards yet to be surveyed!
That's very helpful, Jeremy - many thanks. My 'soft fungi' identification skills do need some work!
December 31, 2025 at 7:40 PM
That's very helpful, Jeremy - many thanks. My 'soft fungi' identification skills do need some work!