Dog Lichen

31 January 2014

Mum's front garden, Horbury

There's a patch about eight inches square of dog lichen, Peltigera canina, on my mum's mossy, shubbery-shaded front lawn, which is well supplied with nutrient courtesy, appropriately, of Frank the springer spaniel.

Usually though, if the adjective 'dog' is spplied to a species, it means that it has no practical use (so a bit like Frank then - only kidding!). Was dog lichen useless as a source of dye or in this case does the name refer to the little white 'rootlets' on the lower surface of the thallus which resemble canine teeth?

Lying nearby, a leaf of Turkey oak, Quercus cerris, had blown in from next door's garden where the century old tree has pride of place in the middle of the neighbour's front lawn.

My mum's specimen tree is a common beech, Fagus sylvatica, one planted by the Victorian occupants of the house as a variagated specimen but which has now reverted to plain green in many of its branches, showing, I would guess, that there can be genetic variation from branch to branch of a beech tree. Perhaps it is something that can happen when the twig starts as a single cell in an incipient bud.

This beech tree now towers over the substantial Victorian villa where my mum lives.