LICHENS – thriving but still threatened

Ivan Pedley of the British Lichen Society also county co-ordinator for Mites and Ticks and for Thrips and a long standing friend of the society gave an excellent talk on one of his pet subjects Lichens.

The talk as usual contained much humour as well as large amounts of information, well illustrated by slides and several tables covered in examples of lichens from all around the country.

Ivan explained how lichens could be used for many purposes including dye making and perfumery, he also showed how they could be used to date past events and illustrate how and if stones had been moved or repositioned.

With the help of Hercules he explained how there was so much of interest in such little packages, you needed to be at the meeting to appreciate this.

It also became apparent how easy it is to destroy centuries of growth by being too tidy and having the urge to clean things too meticulously and we were shown several examples of how rare lichens had been affected some even on nature sites.

We are most grateful to Ivan and hopefully we can arrange an outdoor meeting in the not too distant future.