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THE LIVING WORLD
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The Living WorldÌýis a gentle weekend natural history programme, presented by Lionel Kelleway, which aims to broadcast the best, most intimate encounters with British wildlife.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý25min |
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PRESENTER |
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"The Living World is the next best thing to being there. Our contributors are skilled naturalists who are able to reveal those fascinating facts about animals and plants that you don't always find in books. It's like having a personal guided tour of the countryside, without needing to leave the house."
Lionel Kelleway
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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| Lionel Kelleway with Brian & Sandy Coppins looking at some lichens |
Lichens of the Hazel Wood
Lionel Kelleway visits the Ballachuan hazel wood on the southern tip of Seil Island in the company of lichenologists Brian and Sandy Coppins. The Atlantic coastal hazel wood is a distinctive habitat that is almost unique to western Scotland and is particularly rich in its community of lichens. 250 different species have been recorded at Ballachuan, many of them specific to this habitat, and for this reason, it has been designated a site of international importance by the British Lichen Society.
On first entering the woodland one would be excused for thinking this woodland is a typical coppiced hazel wood. But on closer inspection, the behaviour of the hazel over time has resulted in a climax woodland of hazel with evidence that it may have been almost untouched for thousands of years. The longevity of the hazel stools is one of the main reasons why this woodland has such a rich community of lichens. Indeed many of the lichens here rely on the ecological continuity of the woodland for their survival. The result is a woodland festooned with lichens. The hazel bark of the trees appears uncharacteristically pale and close inspection of the apparently bare surfaces reveals a complex mosaic of lichens closely adhering to the bark as well as other more 'leafy' lobarian lichens.
A lichen, in its simplest form, is a composite organism made up of a fungus and one or more algae living together with the algae providing the essential nutrients via photosynthesis and the fungus the body in which to live. This fascinating symbiotic relationship produces a range of surprising behaviours between the partners especially when it comes to reproduction. The ecological continuity and the extraordinary number of lichens at Ballachuan has enabled some of the secrets behind some of these relationships to be unravelled.
In addition to the rich lichen assemblage, the woodland has a number of interesting fungi associated with hazelÌýnotably hazel gloves and glue fungus, the behaviour of which is equally bizarre.
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