Strings of sausages discovered in Devon wood!
It is believed that a beard lichen discovered at Rhodedendron Wood, Devon at the end of last year may be the rare species Usnea articulata
After looking at a picture taken by the woodland officer, Valerie Staley, the Woodland Trust’s UK Conservation Advisor, Richard Smithers, said:
'I can't be absolutely sure, but it looks distinctly like Usnea articulata, one of our most pollution-sensitive lichens. Essentially, it looks like strings-of-sausages’.
‘It has a very south-western distribution and while it can be locally common in the extreme south-west, it is a ‘Bonus species’ on Francis Rose's New Index of Ecological Continuity due to its rarity UK-wide.'
A top lichen expert lives nearby the wood, so the Trust is hoping they will be able to go out and survey the site and let us know if this species is present.
