Cladonia macilenta?

In Limbricht (Lömmerich in the language of the region) I visited Wil Meijs, a very friendly man specialized in books about nature. Just yesterday, a new encyclopedic book about butterflies came out and he recieved a stack of them for his customers. In stock he has thousands of books, and he allowed me to browse through the collection. He told me that some specialized sets of books stay with him for a long time until he finds the person who just happens to need these. I was impressed by a richly illustrated study about the many subspecies of a certain parasitic flower without roots or leaves -- it lives off another plant's facilities. Books about bats, about birds and even about crickets, with a CD to study the sounds of the different species of crickets. And books about mushrooms. He told me that mycologists are having the time of their life these days, with more species popping up than ever before a a result of the exceptional weather this late summer. They gather as much observation and material as they can to process later -- as soon as the cold sets in, most mushrooms disappear...

I bought a book about the trees of Europe, so I can learn to name the tress I find lichens on. I also chose a booklet with a standard listing of the Dutch lichens and an illustrated paperback of almost 500 pages, Lichens, An Illustrated Guide to the British and Irish Species by Frank S. Dobson. A German book of reference in two volumes, nearly a thousand pages in all, is on backorder for me.

Then I went looking for the old parts of the little town, hoping to bring back some pictures of lichen from this trip.


First I went for the church tower, a promising landmark. This church isn't as old as it seems, or it's been kept so clean there's no lichen to be found there. But luckily, a low wall around the back of the church grounds looks like it's been in neglect for dozens of years. Very good news.



Lots of moss and plenty of lichen. In the corner of the wall I may have found Cladonia macilenta. Comparing the Dobson book with the Dutch field guide by Kok van Herk and André Aptroot helped me arrive at this best guess.