By: Blonde One
Dartmoor hosts an amazingly rich landscape which includes fascinating rocks, trees and wildlife. I recently had a little bit of time waiting at a checkpoint for a team of Ten Tors trainees when I was admiring the absolutely fascinating lichen that covered my cold hard seat.
The variety of different types was astounding and is so easily overlooked. The British Lichen Society website is well worth a look and is full of interesting information, such as the fact that lichen is a stable symbiotic association between a fungus and algae.
The cup shaped lichen aptly known as Pixie Cup lichen was my favourite. The colours and textures of them all though were so varied that I counted at least 7 different types just on one small piece of granite. Apparently it grows at approximately one millimetre a year so I could only imagine how old the hand sized patches were. Amazing! The lichen on the trees was also fascinating in an eerie kind of way. I could imagine the trees looking pretty spooky if you were there when it was getting dimpsy.
