My next Suffolk churchyard target, after surveying Emmanuel Church in Bungay, was Joy of All Who Sorrow Church in Mettingham. This pretty church is one of only three Orthodox churches in Suffolk, and the only one outside Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.
Founded in 2015 on the property of a small country house surrounded by arable fields and livestock farms, its churchyard was never likely to host a wide variety of lichens. But a chest tomb, retaining wall, and some trees including the largest walnut tree I’ve ever seen, did yield just over a couple dozen common species, including one of local interest:
- Kuettlingeria (Caloplaca) albolutescens — a ‘nationally scarce’ species with few records in Suffolk, but only because it’s historically been confused with K. teicholyta and consequently under-recorded.
The full list of species recorded from St Edmund’s Church is as follows:
Mettingham : Joy of All Who Sorrow Church : VC25 East Suffolk : TM3790 : 14 February 2026
- Alyxoria varia
- Arthonia atra
- Candelariella aurella f. aurella
- Circinaria contorta
- Diploicia canescens
- Flavoplaca flavocitrina
- Flavoplaca oasis
- Hyperphyscia adglutinata
- Hypotrachyna revoluta s. str.
- Kuettlingeria albolutescens
- Lecanora campestris subsp. campestris
- Lecanora hybocarpa auct. br.
- Lecidella stigmatea
- Leproplaca chrysodeta
- Myriolecis albescens
- Myriolecis dispersa
- Phaeophyscia orbicularis
- Physcia adscendens
- Physcia tenella
- Protoblastenia rupestris
- Punctelia jeckeri
- Punctelia subrudecta s. str.
- Rinodina oleae
- Sarcogyne regularis
- Verrucaria nigrescens f. nigrescens
- Xanthoria parietina
