Lichen crust

Report writing, the BSBI 2020 Atlas and the unceasing rain mean that photography is very much taking a back seat at the moment. 

I nipped out into the garden between showers and found a little bit of brightness on one of the pollarded willow branches. The bright yellow lichen is Xanthoria parietina, a common species which has increased enormously as a result of high levels nitrogen pollution in the air. 

The pale rather lumpy lichen, almost forming a heart shape, is Lecanora chlarotera, which is a characteristic early coloniser of young, planted, semi-urban trees, and can be found almost anywhere.