Island 2000 Group

Well, winter’s here, the redwings are piling in overhead while other less hardy wildlife fades out of view for a while and with fewer bugs to pester I’ve been looking at other stuff perhaps made more prominent by the dwindling tree cover – lichens. They’re everywhere.  And so many forms and colours. Just near to the office here in East Cowes, along the esplanade, there are four rather lovely and ancient beach huts and a couple still have their original wooden shingle roofs intact. These are now covered in a rich lichen lawn that is amazingly intricate and complex the closer you look. Two bigger species predominate: the leafy and edible-looking Flavoparmelia caperata and the delicately red-capped Cladonia floerkeana. Go on a lichen hunt, they’re as colourful in winter as in summer, in fact some may be at their best being rather less dessicated; they are wonderful things.