Many thanks to Cátia Marques from the University of Suffolk for inviting me to give a guest lecture on lichens to first-year students in her ‘Diversity of Life’ module, part of the UoS BSc in Wildlife, Ecology and Conservation Science.
Lichens don’t fit very neatly into the standard phylogenetic ‘Tree of Life’ except as ‘honorary fungi’ — something we discussed during my teaching session yesterday. No wonder they weren’t a feature of the module previously!
It was a real pleasure to meet young ecologists, and to introduce them to this remarkable form of life. I especially enjoyed taking the students outside into nearby Holywells Park to observe lichens, and to think about how a practical ecologist or field lichenologist might approach a lichen survey of the park.
Cátia told me that her intention is to build the ‘lichen day’ into the module syllabus next year. So I hope to be able to return to introduce another cohort of students to lichens, with perhaps even a bit more time for thinking about lichen surveys from a practical perspective, and for hands-on lichen analysis with the well-resourced lab at the university.
I’m grateful to the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society for supporting this youth outreach event through their new scheme to support the work of County Recorders.
