Lichen Foray at Botanical Gardens.

On Tuesday the Volunteer Wildlife Recorders at the National Botanical Gardens of Wales tried their hands at a lichen foray in the garden grounds. With the total lichen expertise within the group approaching zero this was going to be a learning curve for everyone.

What we soon realised, was that when you start looking for them, lichen are everywhere - especially at a site like the Botanical Gardens. And the whole group were surprised at both the quantity and variety of the species we came across. For example the trees alongside the bookshop, at the start of our walk, were awash with lichen as shown in the image alongside.

Finding and appreciating lichen is one thing, but  identifying them is another matter all together; and as the number of our finds increased, we sorely missed the expertise of a more knowledgeable forayer to enlighten us.

A number of photographs were taken however, and, to give a flavour of our outing, a rudimentary attempt at identifying them was undertaken using various lichen guides.


The images have been uploaded to our Flickr site, which can be accessed by clicking the link below.

National Botanic Garden of Wales Lichen Foray.

If anyone has more knowledge of lichens we would appreciate and help or comments they could give.

Also for anyone who would like to know more about Lichens there is a course being held in April at Orielton House in Pembrokeshire. More info . . . .