Lichenological excursion to the Abbey of Park and the cemetery of Leuven on March 7, 2020

In 2014 and 2015, at the request of the NGO Vrienden van de Abdij van Park (Friends of the Park Abbey), an inventory was made of the lichens of the abbey. As the stone walls of the abbey were going to be restored, an inventory of the flora was asked so as to preserve the lichens, at least as much as possible. During the inventory, a number of very rare epilithic lichens were found like Haematomma ochroleucum, Lecanora pannonica, L. rupicola, L. sulphurea, Pyrenodesmia variabilis, Rhizocarpon geographicum, Tephromela atra and Xanthoparmelia loxodes. The objective of the current excursion was to check whether they lichens had survived the restoration. We found that most of them are still present. Even after the restoration, the Abbey of Park is still a hotspot for epilithic lichens and even three more rare species were discovered: two lichenicolous fungi (Muellerella lichenicola and M. pygmaea) and one jelly lichen
(Lempholemma chalazanum). In the afternoon we visited the cemetery of Leuven were we discovered not less than 83 species. Especially the old Fagus trees were rich in rare macro lichen species as Melanohalea elegantula, Parmotrema pseudoreticulatum and Pleurosticta acetabulum.

Publication year:2020

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