Lichens of Lough Corrib

Rouillaun Mór
Area 1: GPS 53.50217n, 9.44996w

In Area 1 we found a variety of different coloured lichens, but we only found two different lichen growth forms.

Crustose. In this form we found many different colours. There were green lichens, white lichens, and purple lichens. Some of the lichens we were unable to completely identify. This is due in part to the difficulty in actually identifying some of the crustose varieties and lack of a definitive visual reference. We found one specific lichen which appears to be very common on these island. This we believe to be the Crab Eyes Lichen. This lichen varied in size from small sections of about 3cms to one very large example in Area 4 of Rouillaun Mór (40cms) to an extremely large example in Area 2 of Rouillaun Theas (180cms across).

Foliose. In this form we only saw two colour variations. One was a blue- green variety type and we found only a very small section of a yellow lichen called xanthoria parietina.

There follows a detailed photographic record of the Lichens found in Area 1.

Photo of white lichens on south facing rocks of Area 1.

Full view of Crab Eyes Lichen

Macro detail of crab eyes lichen.

Full view of unidentified pale green crustose lichen.

Macro photo of lichen (above)