March 2013: Teloschistes chrysophthalmus at Pylewell Shore
After the Wessex Lichen Group meeting to Keyhaven, on the New Forest coast, on the 16th March 2012, found a third Hampshire site for Goldeneyes Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, I thought I would have a go at finding more sites along the New Forest coast. The shore at Lepe had some promising looking Blackthorn but no luck there. Further west, back towards Keyhaven, I drove down Tanners Lane and had a look along the Pyewell coast.
Here I had a long walk with plenty suitable thorn but no luck until the very last bush before I had to turn back. There I found my first Goldeneyes. Only one thallus but what a humdinger!
The big Teloschistes chrysophthalmus thallus at Pylewell shore
The thallus was on the branch of a Blackthorn bush on the edge of a salt marsh grazed by Forest stock. The associated species were Xanthoria parietina, Evernia prunastri and Amandinea punctata, with Lecanora chlarotera, Lecanora confusa and Lecidella elaeochroma f. elaeochroma nearby.
As this section of the shore is open to the stock turned out in the New Forest, this record is also an addition to the exceptionally rich lichen flora of the open Forest.
Neil A Sanderson 24/3/2013