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Nathan Chrismas

@thevagrantlichenologist.com
753 followers 560 following 134 posts

Lichenologist - FRGS - Mountain Leader Working with NTS and RBGE Blog: www.thevagrantlichenologist.com Insta: www.instagram.com/cragology/ Web: www.cragology.rocks

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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 07/08/2026
Have been a bit quiet on here recently (social media/life overload perhaps?), but licheneering continues. Here's another example of the mega-rare-in-Scotland Catolechia wahlenbergii spotted on a glorious day scrambling Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis a cpuple of weeks back.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 13/05/2026
On a climbing trip in Sweden and pretty psyched to see this abundant Umbilicaria crustulosa, a lichen with a super limited distribution in the UK but all over the granite cliffs here where there's a bit of drainage
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 31/03/2026
I'm out west this week surveying some patches of woodland on the Balmacara estate outwith the well known Coille Mhor SSSI. There's some amazing lichens about, like these lovely Pseudocyphellaria citrina and P. norvegica. #lichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 18/03/2026
Had a good day at Glasdrum NNR filling a few gaps in my knowledge of Scottish rainforest lichens with the help of Oliver Moore. This was the find of the day, the nationally rare jelly Leptogium hibernicum. #lichenGBI @plantlifeuk.bsky.social
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 21/02/2026
Found a lichen lifer today, Catolechia wahlenbergii, one of our rarest arctic-alpines. In Glen Nevis, VC97. Last official record from the area in an adjacent monad was 2003. What a beauty! #lichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 19/02/2026
I've been out on my first fieldwork with NTS this week looking at some of their woodland sites in Perthshire. Some nice old growth indicators tucked in there, including Lopadium disciforme (black fruits) and Mycobilimbia sphaeroides (brown fruits). Also Oliver Moore.
Oliver looking at a treeA lichen black fruits on a green squamulose thallusA lichen, brown fruits on a green granular thallus
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 19/01/2026
Here's Catillaria gilbertii mounted on... a wine cork for some reason
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 19/01/2026
Here's Catillaria gilbertii mounted on... a wine cork for some reason
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 19/01/2026
I'll be spending a bit more time here from now on, pretty neat to have access to all the specimens in the RBGE herbarium
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 18/01/2026
Ever seen Pseudevernia furfuracea fruiting before? I'm not sure I have, but here it is on Pinus sylvestris on the shore of Loch Gamhna, Rothiemurchus VC96
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 11/01/2026
Big new start for me tomorrow - after a decade in the research world, for the next two years I'm going to be working with National Trust for Scotland learning what it takes to be an independent lichen surveyor.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 04/01/2026
Another one from the Tafraout granite. This looks superficially like some images of Acarospora strigata (I've never seen this in person so just having a stab...)
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 03/01/2026
No chems or microscopy unfortunately as lichens aren't the primary objective of this particular trip...
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 03/01/2026
Some neat Psoras from near Tafraout in Morocco. The first I'm guessing is P. decipiens complex (I was wondering if P. savizcii given the pink squamules, but uncertain of the gypsum content of the soil). The second, looking very green after rain, I'm unsure. @annevankow.bsky.social any thoughts?
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 04/11/2025
Nothing going on in the ascus tip, some nicely arranged globose hyaline spores, unbranched paraphyses, and an epithecium that turns vivid emerald green in K leads nicely to Schaereria cinereorufa, a circumpolar arctic-alpine of mineral rich rocks #lichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 04/11/2025
I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this lumpy lecidioid thing (mica schist at ~800m VC96). I was half expecting a mutant Rhizo, but microscopy said otherwise.... #lichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 21/10/2025
Stereocaulon condensatum. This is a thing frequently associated with mine spoil so really nice to see it in a more natural setting - exposed soil flushed by mineral rich rock at ~800m VC96 #lichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 18/10/2025
Some very fine looking Trapeliopsis pseudogranulosa VC106 #LichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 15/10/2025
Another mysterious black crust from the same habitat, Schaereria fuscocinerea. Working out what this was in the field was a bit of a light bulb moment as it helped to put the other black crusts around (like O.m. and Rhizocarpon c.f. reductum) into context. #lichenGBI
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 14/10/2025
Orphniospora moriopsis on gneissose granite, Strath Vaich. I think this thing is pretty underrecorded on account of it being a fairly mysterious black crust, but when it's mature it develops a distinct orange pruina which can help to tell it apart from other things
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 13/10/2025
...and here it is! Only known from a few snow beds high up on the Cairngorm plateau. Great to finally see it on home turf.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 03/07/2025
Some super lichens here in the Dolomites. A favourite of the trip so far is Bellemerea alpina, a species that's incredibly scarce in the Cairngorms but in the heart of its range here.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 29/06/2025
En route to the First Symposium of Alpine Lichenology. Very excited for this! I'll be discussing work from our Scottish hills and looking forward to putting it in the context of mountain environments on a wider scale.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 07/05/2025
Female Belted Beauty moth. This is the Scottish subspecies, Lycia zonaria atlantica, found on machair grassland in the Hebrides (here on Mingulay)
A wingless female belted beauty moth, Lycia zonaria.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 28/03/2025
In Birmingham for our workshop on lichen microbiomes thanks to the NERC Arctic Office. Here's @ingeborgklarenberg.bsky.social talking about her work on lichen associated communities in Antarctica
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 27/02/2025
Lots of this lovely Usnea ciliata to be found on the Grand Traverse of the Remarkables above Queenstown. A New Zealand endemic, one of its defining characteristics is the purple-black pigmentation at the ends of its branches
A man climbing on a mountain A black-tipped bushy lichen
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 20/02/2025
Currently in New Zealand and blown away by the lichen assemblages here. Many familiar genera, but new species to me and boy are those macrolichens BIG. Here are Sticta latifrons, Yarrumia colensoi, and Stereocaulon ramulosum from the Mt Aspiring national park.
Sticta latifronsYarrumia colensoiStereocaulon ramulosum
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 23/01/2025
Hunting for frosty Cladonia in the Cairngorms this morning. Glad to get fieldwork out of the way before the impending cataclysm of Storm Eowyn
Just a dude in a yellow jacket kneeling down on an icy hill looking for lichen
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 10/01/2025
Good to be back at the NHM for the British Lichen Society AGM. Feels like a long long time since my last visit.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 09/01/2025
Interested in lichen conservation? Check out our new article on the best way to go about carrying out lichen red list assessments.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 13/12/2024
Really nice talk on lichen secondary metabolite production in response to environmental harshness in Antarctica by Inger de Jonge. Looking forward to reading the paper!
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 13/12/2024
Erika Hiltbrunner talking about the effect of drought on terricolous alpine lichens
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 13/12/2024
@scootjd.bsky.social on his neat peat phenology photo project
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 12/12/2024
Last up in the BES microbial ecology session is Marie Le Geay on microbial roles in peatland C cycling
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 12/12/2024
Josh Thurston on his PhD work on Sphagnum, Racomitrium and Cladonia microbiomes from our field site in the Cairngorms
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 12/12/2024
Next up Tristan Lafont Rapnouil on Sphagnum microbiomes
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 12/12/2024
Vincent Jassey describing a cool reciprocal transplant experiment to look at the effects of warming on microbial primary productivity in peatlands. Extra points for NIN shirt.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 10/12/2024
Time for BES with the @func-ecol-lab.bsky.social crew @britishecolsoc.bsky.social
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 21/11/2024
In the warm up to the carnival that is Kendal Mountain Festival, a bunch of folk went up Loughrigg with Trash Free Trails to litter pick and help them develop their citizen science programme. Nice day on the fell, and a tonne of litter picked.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 15/11/2024
Bryoria bicolor growing on a small outcrop in a basic flush near Kingussie. Not a lot of records of this thing about (I've only seen it once before in the NW Highlands), but no obvious reason why it's not more common. An example of something that's scarce 'just because' rather than being threatened?
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 14/11/2024
We've been out in the field this week sampling lichens and collecting environmental data. Our field site in the Cairngorms is an amazing bit of lichen heath with a sub-arctic feel to it - although it's pretty warm at the moment!
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 12/08/2024
This week I'm on fieldwork in Iceland collaborating with colleagues from University of Akureyri and University of Birmingham on a UK-Iceland partnership grant sponsored by the NERC Arctic Office. Great country, great lichens, and a great team.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 29/05/2024
Freshwater aquatic lichens and freshwater aquatic lichenologists! Lots of learning and lots of fun on this week's British Lichen Society advanced course in the Lake District
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 25/02/2024
AMAZING 22° halo seen from A' Mharconaich today.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 09/02/2024
Our research on Lichina pygmaea made it to the front cover of New Phytologist!
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 17/01/2024
Absolutely whopping Lasallia pustulata.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 13/01/2024
Today I've mostly been trying to get over the flu while asking ChatGPT to draw me pictures of lichens in R. The results have been... mixed. thevagrantlichenologist.com/index.php/20...
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 26/12/2023
Some Christmas lichen nerdery over on my blog thevagrantlichenologist.com/index.php/20...
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 10/12/2023
Interestingly, it appeared on a very tourmaline rich boulder. A very different texture to the surrounding granite (smooth and shiny), and I wonder if that plays a part in determining microhabitat here.
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Nathan Chrismas @thevagrantlichenologist.com · 10/12/2023
The little soralia pom-poms are really distinctive and hard to miss when you've got your eye in for them.
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