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.
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…
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.
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...
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…
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!
One for New Year's Eve: more #fungi from autumn holiday in Lincolnshire, showing off brilliant fluorescence under UV light! Left: type of bonnet mushroom (Mycena). Right: possibly sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). Observed in late October, after dark in @lincswildlife.bsky.social Legbourne Wood.
December 31, 2025 at 6:24 PM
One for New Year's Eve: more #fungi from autumn holiday in Lincolnshire, showing off brilliant fluorescence under UV light! Left: type of bonnet mushroom (Mycena). Right: possibly sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). Observed in late October, after dark in @lincswildlife.bsky.social Legbourne Wood.
More #fungi from Lincolnshire wolds in October. Top: jelly ears (Auricularia auricula-judae). Bottom: probably common earthball (Scleroderma citrinum). Final image serves as good reminder that what we see is only fruiting body from extensive mycelial network that is the 'everyday' fungus itself.
December 30, 2025 at 8:16 PM
More #fungi from Lincolnshire wolds in October. Top: jelly ears (Auricularia auricula-judae). Bottom: probably common earthball (Scleroderma citrinum). Final image serves as good reminder that what we see is only fruiting body from extensive mycelial network that is the 'everyday' fungus itself.
Colourful, glistening parrot waxcap (Gliophorus psittacinus). Observed in late October in fields on highest part of Lincolnshire wolds. Kicked over perhaps by livestock or another walker. Glad to see it in agricultural area: it's indicator of healthier grassland that hasn't yet been over-fertilised.
December 24, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Colourful, glistening parrot waxcap (Gliophorus psittacinus). Observed in late October in fields on highest part of Lincolnshire wolds. Kicked over perhaps by livestock or another walker. Glad to see it in agricultural area: it's indicator of healthier grassland that hasn't yet been over-fertilised.
Strange one. Dubia-esque P caesia, or caesia-esque P dubia? Suppose it depends whether soredia placement or pseudocyphellae are more definitive. No doubt you've seen, but LGBI3 complicates matters with potential 'P subalbinea': like P caesia, but with mainly apical or marginal labriform soredia.
December 20, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Strange one. Dubia-esque P caesia, or caesia-esque P dubia? Suppose it depends whether soredia placement or pseudocyphellae are more definitive. No doubt you've seen, but LGBI3 complicates matters with potential 'P subalbinea': like P caesia, but with mainly apical or marginal labriform soredia.
Returning to Nostoc #cyanobacterial partner in Enchylium tenax 'jelly #lichen' below. Here it is as a free-living organism. Sometimes called 'troll's butter'! Essentially huge colony of bead-like chains of photosynthesising bacteria glommed together in water-absorbing gel. Walesby, Lincolnshire.
December 20, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Returning to Nostoc #cyanobacterial partner in Enchylium tenax 'jelly #lichen' below. Here it is as a free-living organism. Sometimes called 'troll's butter'! Essentially huge colony of bead-like chains of photosynthesising bacteria glommed together in water-absorbing gel. Walesby, Lincolnshire.
Cladonia fimbriata is very common #lichen in Britain, but how splendid to see in such profusion! Distinguished from other similar pixie-cups by 'golf-tee' shape, and by surface of uniformly farinose i.e. 'powdery' soredia. On moss on calcareous drystone wall, Normanby-le-Wold, Lincolnshire, England.
December 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Cladonia fimbriata is very common #lichen in Britain, but how splendid to see in such profusion! Distinguished from other similar pixie-cups by 'golf-tee' shape, and by surface of uniformly farinose i.e. 'powdery' soredia. On moss on calcareous drystone wall, Normanby-le-Wold, Lincolnshire, England.
This is oak marble #gall. Sort of 'tumor' of oak buds caused by #wasp Andricus kollari, whose larvae develop within. Hugely important both economically and culturally: source of iron gall ink, standard handwriting ink in Europe from Roman times until century ago! Near Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.
December 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM
This is oak marble #gall. Sort of 'tumor' of oak buds caused by #wasp Andricus kollari, whose larvae develop within. Hugely important both economically and culturally: source of iron gall ink, standard handwriting ink in Europe from Roman times until century ago! Near Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.
Enchylium tenax var ceranoides on roadside verge, Claxby, Lincolnshire. Only two dozen E tenax records in this county, but it's surely more common than that. A 'jelly #lichen' involving #cyanobacteria, not green #alga. Swells with water when wet, as cyanobacteria photosynthesise better if saturated.
December 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Enchylium tenax var ceranoides on roadside verge, Claxby, Lincolnshire. Only two dozen E tenax records in this county, but it's surely more common than that. A 'jelly #lichen' involving #cyanobacteria, not green #alga. Swells with water when wet, as cyanobacteria photosynthesise better if saturated.
One of the November #moth group species (Epirrita dilutata sens lat) requiring genital dissection to ID reliably. This one kept its bits! Observed in late October, not November as the name suggests, but there's always someone who arrives early for the party. North Reston, Lincolnshire, England.
December 15, 2025 at 4:24 PM
One of the November #moth group species (Epirrita dilutata sens lat) requiring genital dissection to ID reliably. This one kept its bits! Observed in late October, not November as the name suggests, but there's always someone who arrives early for the party. North Reston, Lincolnshire, England.
Next #lichen factsheet and gallery now posted: Ochrolechia parella. Common and widespread in Britain on siliceous or mildly basic rocks, building stone, brick, etc. Somewhat variable in form, but somehow also unmistakeable with its heavily white-pruinose apothecia. aspenecology.com/ochrolechia-...
December 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Next #lichen factsheet and gallery now posted: Ochrolechia parella. Common and widespread in Britain on siliceous or mildly basic rocks, building stone, brick, etc. Somewhat variable in form, but somehow also unmistakeable with its heavily white-pruinose apothecia. aspenecology.com/ochrolechia-...
One of 'crystal jelly' species in genus Aequorea. Common in British waters: this one washed up at Huttoft Beach, Lincolnshire. Not true #jellyfish but #hydromedusa: predatory, free-floating, sexual stage of sessile, colonial animal known as #hydroid. A glimpse of incredible variety of marine life!
December 14, 2025 at 1:55 PM
One of 'crystal jelly' species in genus Aequorea. Common in British waters: this one washed up at Huttoft Beach, Lincolnshire. Not true #jellyfish but #hydromedusa: predatory, free-floating, sexual stage of sessile, colonial animal known as #hydroid. A glimpse of incredible variety of marine life!
Circinaria hoffmanniana on mortar on Lincoln Castle battlements. First for hectad, but this #lichen is under-recorded because it was previously considered morph of C contorta. C hoffmanniana is also likely hidden in past records of C calcarea on concrete, as latter tends to prefer hard limestone.
December 14, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Circinaria hoffmanniana on mortar on Lincoln Castle battlements. First for hectad, but this #lichen is under-recorded because it was previously considered morph of C contorta. C hoffmanniana is also likely hidden in past records of C calcarea on concrete, as latter tends to prefer hard limestone.
On left is Paroligolophus agrestis: very common British #harvestman. On right (I wager) is dark form of same species, judging from smooth, pale ocularium and abruptly widening then narrowing saddle. But I'm no arachnologist: happy to be corrected! Worlingham, Suffolk, and North Reston, Lincolnshire.
December 13, 2025 at 6:08 PM
On left is Paroligolophus agrestis: very common British #harvestman. On right (I wager) is dark form of same species, judging from smooth, pale ocularium and abruptly widening then narrowing saddle. But I'm no arachnologist: happy to be corrected! Worlingham, Suffolk, and North Reston, Lincolnshire.
2/2 …confused with look-alikes in 'coccifera group'. Identified by corticate, somewhat areolate surface, especially below; corticate granules above; lack of microsquamules; more flaring cups with rounded granules inside. Red apothecia and Pd- reaction separates from non-'coccifera group' pixie-cups.
December 9, 2025 at 1:20 PM
2/2 …confused with look-alikes in 'coccifera group'. Identified by corticate, somewhat areolate surface, especially below; corticate granules above; lack of microsquamules; more flaring cups with rounded granules inside. Red apothecia and Pd- reaction separates from non-'coccifera group' pixie-cups.