Ancient Oak Research Articles

Square-grid sampling to address the vegetation patterns of declined Mediterranean forest ecosystems

Palo Laziale Wood is a relatively small biotope (129 ha) situated along the coast of the Metropolitan Area of Rome, Lazio region, Italy. Despite being one of the region's remaining patches of an ancient oak floodplain broad-leaved forest, it conserves numerous priority habitats and species of high conservation interest. The vegetation consists mainly of Turkey oak stands with small temporary ponds and flooded meadows. The forest underwent a dieback in 2003, triggered by a significantly hot and dry summer. In 2018, an ecological restoration project (LIFE PRIMED LIFE17 NAT/GR/000511) was initiated to restore Palo Laziale’s ecosystems. This paper presents the methodological approach employed to assess the vegetation ecology of a degraded forest ecosystem. Such an investigation was a key component of the Adaptative Restoration Plan of the Project. It provided the baseline necessary for designing and calibrating the planned direct conservation actions on the target habitat types (91M0: Pannonian-Balkanic turkey oak-sessile oak forests, 3170*: Mediterranean temporary ponds, 5230*: Arborescent matorral with Laurus nobilis, etc.) and establishing reference values to enable long-term monitoring. Plant taxa comparison from 1 ha square-grid sampling and multivariate analyses were carried out to group species and identify environmental and Ellenberg-based drivers. Six ecologically distinct units were found, eventually confirming the distinctive ecological heterogeneity of Mediterranean ecosystems. Amongst these, the hygrophilous vegetation has resulted to be the one mainly affected by the dieback outbreak. Due to the high heterogeneity, introduced by the massive tree mortality, the method of regular 1 ha squares turned out to be a reliable alternative to random vegetation sampling plots (e.g., phytosociological relevés) to disentangle ecological patterns of fragmented and disturbed habitats.

Ancient tree genomes for old questions.

Most foundational work on the evolution and migration of plant species relies on genomic data from contemporary samples. Ancient plant samples can give us access to allele sequences and distributions on the landscape dating back to the mid Holocene or earlier (Gugerli etal.,2005). Nuclear DNA from ancient wood, however, has been mostly inaccessible until now. In a From the Cover article in this issue of Molecular Ecology, Wagner etal. (2023) present the first resequenced nuclear genomes from ancient oak wood, including two samples dated to the 15th century and one that dates to more than 3500 years ago. These ancient tree genomes open the possibility for investigating species adaptation, migration, divergence, and hybridisation in the deep past. They pave the way for what we hope will be a new era in the use of paleogenomics to study Holocene tree histories.

DISCOVERING ANCIENT AND VETERAN TREES IN ENGLAND

Photo 1. A veteran common beech growing in Froggatt Woods. Peak District, England. Photo credit: Tom Reed. Photo 2. Two ancient oaks growing in a historic deer park, showing significant decay in the trunk in the foreground. Chatsworth Park, Derbyshire, England. Photo credit: Tom Reed. Photo 3. A veteran pedunculate oak in an old wood pasture habitat. Glenarm, Northern Ireland. Photo credit: Tom Reed. Photo 4. An ancient pedunculate oak; a former forest tree now growing in a historic garden. Chatsworth Gardens, Derbyshire, England. Photo credit: Tom Reed. Photo 5. An ancient hornbeam; a surviving lapsed pollard that originates from a former medieval hunting forest. Hatfield Forest, England. Photo credit: Tom Reed. These photographs illustrate the article “Distribution models calibrated with independent field data predict two million ancient and veteran trees in England” by Victoria Nolan, Francis Gilbert, Tom Reed, and Tom Reader published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2695

Native Providence: Memory, Community, and Survivance in the Northeast by Patricia E. Rubertone (review)

Reviewed by: Native Providence: Memory, Community, and Survivance in the Northeast by Patricia E. Rubertone Hartman H. Deetz (bio) Native Providence: Memory, Community, and Survivance in the Northeast by Patricia E. Rubertone University of Nebraska Press, 2020 IN 1943 IN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, Chief Sunrise shocked the city, making headlines simply by walking out into the street dressed in his traditional regalia. He was a Narragansett Indian, in Narragansett Territory, where Narragansett people have always been. Native people in New England are first contact people: we had no rumor, no experience, no expectation of how history with European settlers would unfold. My people, the Wampanoag, along with Nipmuc and Massachusett were among the first graduates of Harvard, and Narragansetts were among the first residents of Providence, when Roger Williams had to broker a deal to allow colonists to move in among them. Between the bark-covered wigwams, English mud and sticks, wattle and daub were being built. We have been here from the beginning. We are a part of the fabric of this place, and our history is American history. When the city of Providence was created Native hands were among those creating it. As the world modernized, Indigenous people modernized and urbanized with it. We work as house cleaners and laborers but also have become champion checkers players or marketed the "Indian Tonic" remedy of the Narragansett "Indian Doctress" for sale to the masses. Patricia Rubertone explores the interconnection—of kinship, of family moving back and forth from reservation to city, of intermarriages—that taps into the Indigenous underground of New England that still thrives today. Given these networks of families and kin I can hopscotch from one Native community to the next—with many of my cousins among them—all the way to New York. Many of the family names mentioned throughout this book—Noka, Brown, Mitchel, Helm, and Thomas—are still present today. Native Providence challenges the concept of the Monolithic Indian, one that is always rural, past tense, and pushed aside by the arrival of the modern world. Rubertone shows how Native people were adapting to and taking part in the modernization of the world along with their next-door neighbors, while at the same time holding a continuous occupancy that stretches into precolonial times. They did not come to the city; the city came to them. Almost every new shift in "Indian Policy" has been tested here on the [End Page 152] East Coast before being brought to the national scale, including war, boarding schools, subdividing then taxing and selling land, relocation, and detribalization. For some tribes their experience with colonization is not yet 150 years old: how are they adapting, and what lessons can they take from what we in the northeast have and are continuing to experience? Rubertone shows some of the ways that Native people in the northeast have survived the centuries. Rubertone manages to capture many important parts of what it is to be Indigenous in the northeast: continuity, connection, kinship, adaptability, resilience. As Indigenous people in New England, we are four hundred years into this grand experiment of colonization. What does that look like for people who have watched the cities grow around them? The concrete interstate laid over old trade paths, whose dirt was packed by millions of moccasin prints over thousands of years. Indigenous neighborhoods and homesteads stand like the groves of old growth, ancient oaks among invasive regrowth. To the casual observer we may seem to blend in, but we remain plain as day for those who know what they are looking at. Rubertone has produced an important work for Natives and non-Natives alike, one that challenges preconceived notions of who we are as Native people as well as what we can be. [End Page 153] Hartman H. Deetz HARTMAN H. DEETZ is an enrolled member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. Copyright © 2022 Regents of the University of Minnesota

Ancient Trees and Aged Peasants

This article takes as its starting point Jacob George Strutt’s description, in his Sylva Britannica (1826) of the Cowthorpe Oak, an ancient oak tree, as being ‘like some aged peasant, whose toil-worn limbs still give evidence of the strength which enabled him to acquit himself of the labors of his youth’. Strutt’s etching of the tree may be compared with Thomas Barker of Bath’s painting, Man Holding a Staff. Both works compare the life cycle of a tree to that of a human being, and specifically a male peasant, who has spent his working life in the open air, battered by the weather. Symbols of British history and greatness, from the rites of the Druids to the naval victories of the Napoleonic Wars, ancient oaks could stand for stoicism, steadfastness, independence, and peaceful reform. Depictions of aged peasants, in art and literature, served a similar purpose. They appealed to those who felt nostalgic for the idea of a more settled, rural past, and emotionally attached to paternalistic values.

Diverging consequences of past forest management on plant and soil attributes in ancient oak forests of southwestern Iran

The oak (Quercus brantii Lindl.) semiarid forests of western Iran are among the oldest and host a remarkable diversity. However, the originally high forests were largely converted to coppices and submitted to a long history of traditional management and human disturbances. We investigated the effect of past management and forest structure on soil properties and vegetation diversity on two forest systems: coppice‐with‐standards stands abandoned after an intense period of exploitation (CWS) and high forest stands (HF) submitted to a low intensity of management. We selected in each system three 1–2 ha stands and sampled 30 plots to measure vegetation diversity, forest structure using structural indices and, main soil factors including bulk density, nutrients, organic carbon and porosity. We found a higher species diversity in HF than in CWS with respectively 7 woody species in the former and only 4 in the latter as well as a higher structural complexity. Plant composition differed also between the two systems and multivariate analyses revealed clear associations between vegetation composition and soil factors in particular soil nutrients, soil porosity for HF and bulk density and texture for CWS. In fact, contents in soil nutrients were higher in HF than in CWS for total nitrogen (0.28 vs 0.15%), available phosphorus (22.82 vs 15.47 ppm), available nitrogen (0.28 vs 0.15 ppm), and organic matter (2.58 vs 1.61%) whereas soils of CWS showed a higher bulk density (1.39 vs 1.29) and a lower porosity (47.66 vs 51.50%). This study thus revealed the legacy of the past forest management actions on the different components of the forest ecosystem. We concluded that the conservative management in high forests was more favourable for the protection of soil and vegetation diversity than in the traditional coppicing system.

Gone

Gone Linda Wastila (bio) The late-May morning I drove east from Chapel Hill, I didn't pay much mind to the tracts of yellowed corn and soy or the tobacco-curing sheds standing derelict. As I headed home, Ma beside me, my junior year and final exams behind me, all that filled my head was catching up on sleep and getting ready for my summer internship at the National Institutes of Health. [End Page 18] Click for larger view View full resolution Photo by Renee Grayson [End Page 19] "Fred Jarvis had a heart attack over Easter," Ma said. "Didn't get the seed in. Probably a good thing, what with this drought." "I hope you made him pay the lease," I said. "Don't be cold, Clayton. Poor man's bedridden." "Jesus, Ma. He has kids to help. We can't afford to take on his twohundred-acre problems." She patted my thigh. "Don't worry. I leased ten acres to a girl from up north. She's farming daylilies." The space behind my eyes pinched. "Flowers? Now there's a real moneymaker." Ma got quiet and scribbled in her sketchpad. I mumbled an apology. She coughed low in her throat, polite, like she was holding back. The AC rattled, working hard. The road curled through Kingsboro, past the Barbeque Lodge and the Purina factory. When we passed the hog-rendering plant, the air took on a sulfuric edge. At the east end of town, I steered right at what had once been the far corner of family land, now a used-car dealership. The town peeled away in the side-view mirror, replaced by red clay. Ma leaned against the window, eyes closed, sketchbook fallen at her feet. Her cheekbones jutted sharp against her skin. The zygomatics, I remembered, from my anatomy final. Yesterday, when we'd met in the cool dim of the art museum, I'd found her sitting on the leather bench, gazing at sepia-colored paintings of tobacco leaves and buds, her botanical creations that she'd donated to the collection. The same spot where I sat when I needed to destress from school. When she stood up and I pulled her into my hug, she felt as insubstantial as a dragonfly wing. The car rolled into the next intersection. An ancient oak anchored the corner. The Kissing Tree, we'd called it in high school, for the mistletoe dripping from its uppermost branches. Fifty feet back, under the oak's shade, stood one of the original slave shacks, modernized with electricity and running water. I'd helped Daddy install the porcelain on my tenth birthday. The year before he passed. Ma stirred. "That's the lily farm," she said. "The owner lives in the cabin." "I hope you're charging rent." "She's hiring," Ma said. "Needs someone with a strong back and a sharp mind." [End Page 20] "Plenty of strong backs around here," I said. "The sharp minds, though, that's a problem." "Don't be a snob—I raised you better than that. There's more to smarts than book learning." Her words stung. Money was tight. My scholarship helped, and if I shaved off a semester and got early admission to med school, all the better. The NIH internship paid a small stipend, but I'd use most of it for room and board. State school was fine, but I aimed higher—Duke, Yale, maybe Harvard. "Sorry, Mama," I said. "I'm tired from finals." "You have all summer to rest up." "I'm leaving for my internship in two weeks," I reminded her. "I'll be back Labor Day." To pack my belongings, share a few meals, and head back to school. Back to the real world. Ma reached over and stroked the back of my neck. "Well, get a haircut before you go," she said, soft-like, then stared back out the window. ________ Too tired to sleep, I wandered the three-bedroom ranch that had never felt like home, flipping through her sketchbooks, the piles of overdue bills, turning the television on, then off. From her bedroom in the back, Ma hacked and wheezed. She...

Buglossoporus pulvinus, a rare wood-inhabiting fungus on ancient oak trees in Poland: ecology, distribution and extinction risk assessment

Buglossoporus pulvinus is widely distributed across Europe, within the range of Quercus robur. Throughout the area in which it appears, it is rare or very rare. It is listed as an endangered species in Europe and has been added to the Red Lists of fungi in a number of countries, along with awaiting inclusion in the IUCN Red List. In this study we have critically analysed the existing data about the occurrence of B. pulvinus in Poland. We have presented two new localities of the species in question in Poland, as well as new occurrences on the territory of the Białowieża National Park, the only place where this species had been previously recorded in Poland. Selected trees and logs inhabited by B. pulvinus have been characterized. We have indicated the number of observed basidiomata, their phenology, and the sizes of the largest specimens. We have identified 8 fungus species (Bisporella citrina, Daedalea quercina, Hapalopilus croceus, Hymenochaete rubiginosa, Laetiporus sulphureus, Mycena galericulata, M. inclinata, Xylobolus frustulatus) that coexist with B. pulvinus. Based on the new distribution data for B. pulvinus in Poland, according to IUCN Red List criteria this species should be classified as Endangered (EN).

Fine-scale habitat utilization by birds in an ancient oak (Quercus spp.) wood-pasture in southwestern Turkey

Wood-pastures are disappearing rapidly in the eastern Mediterranean basin due to changes in land use. Traditional farming by means of goat husbandry and pollarding has allowed many trees to become old, creating valuable habitats for biodiversity. Developing viable management schemes for habitats of conservation concern require studies aiming at identifying relationships between habitat structure and associated species. In this study, the associations between habitat structure and bird species diversity were studied on a fine scale, using data obtained from transect inventories in an oak wood-pasture in southwestern Turkey. Almost all species were most abundant where trunk size, basal area or tree density peaked. Diversity of ground-nesters was slightly and positively associated with an increase in basal area. Low canopy-nesters were positively associated with an increase in shrub density, whereas there was a negative association for high canopy-nesters. Secondary cavity-nesters were unrelated to the density of small trunk cavities but exhibited a positive association with basal area of trees. Contrarily, primary cavity-nesters preferred trees with larger cavities, although this was most likely due to the presence of other desirable attributes of the very same trees. The results of this study give important insights to the structural and spatial organization of bird assemblages in a little studied but rich, culturally managed ecosystem in the Mediterranean.

Estimating the Age of Ancient Oaks

ABSTRACT An established method for estimating the age of large and veteran trees is reviewed in the context of historic girth measurements of specimen oaks spanning up to 231 years. Such data are used to recalibrate the earlier model and to generate an improved scheme for predicting the probable age of ancient oaks from traditional measurements of their girth. The data upon which the recalibration is based reveals a consistent linear relationship between girth and age that can last more than two centuries. This indicates that mature oaks follow a particular growth trajectory with respect to girth that is tenaciously maintained over time in the face of changes in their circumstances and surroundings. The revised method can form part of a suite of aids available to researchers investigating the age of historical features in the landscape.

New Paradoxes of the Ancient Oak Forest

New Paradoxes of the Ancient Oak Forest

Forest continuity, soil depth and tree species are important parameters for SOC stocks in an old forest (Templiner Buchheide, northeast Germany)

Forest mineral soils have the potential to accumulate large amounts of carbon (C). Numerous factors, which have often been insufficiently studied, affect soil organic C (SOC) stocks. Detailed knowledge of variation in SOC storage is important to assess the C accumulation potential of forest soils. To examine the impacts of forest continuity, soil depth and tree species on SOC stocks, 15 ancient (>230years of forest continuity) and 15 old (>100 but <200years of forest continuity) forest soils, topsoil and subsoil in the Templiner Buchheide (Brandenburg, NE Germany) were compared. The old forest sites were afforested on former grassland or wasteland. On all sites grew one of three dominant tree species: European beech (Fagus sylvatica), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) or oak (Quercus spec.). Pine forest sites had been underplanted with beech and were mixed-species stands. Soil samples were taken down to a mean depth of 55cm. Total contents of SOC, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca), potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg); soil pH; and bulk densities were determined.The soils of ancient forest sites stored significantly more total SOC, N, P, S, K and Mg than did the old ones. Mean total SOC stocks in ancient forests of all three tree species were 12–17% larger compared with those in old forests. Significant differences in SOC stocks between the two forest continuity groups appeared only in subsoil and not in topsoil. Pine forest stored larger SOC stocks than did beech and oak forests. Significant differences were found between ancient pine and oak forests and between ancient beech and oak forests. Soils in ancient beech and pine forests at depths of between 29 and 55cm contained, on average, even 50% larger SOC stocks than did soils at the same depths in ancient oak forests and in all old forests.Forest continuity significantly affected SOC stocks. These results support previous studies that old forests are still able to enrich SOC. Although soil samples were carried out to a mean depth of only 55cm, the results indicate that differences in SOC stocks between ancient and old forest could also be found in deeper soil layers. It was suggested that beech and mixed-species stands of beech and pine and total soil P stocks had a positive effect on SOC stocks in subsoil. To understand SOC accumulation in forests, especially in subsoil, with a forest continuity of >100years, the role of different tree species and of total P cycling in forests, deeper sampling depths and repeated sampling would be required.

Biological and topochemical studies on the resistance of excavated oak piles (Quercus sp.) from a historical bridge in Bavaria

Abstract Archaeological wood of 13 excavated oak piles from five historical bridge generations in Bavaria, dated from 1447 to 1787, was investigated by means of light microscopy (LM) and cellular UV-microspectrophotometry (UMSP) to study the ageing and natural resistance of the excavated wood. Furthermore, the mineral content of the ancient wood was determined to evaluate the impact of mineral inclusions on microbial resistance, tested using a mini block fungal test. The LM and UMSP analyses revealed well preserved cell wall structures and no significant modification of the lignin composition and distribution in predominant parts of the piles. Slight microbial decay caused by soft rot and erosion bacteria was only detectable at the outermost millimetres of individual piles. The fungal mini block tests yielded mass losses of ancient oak samples between 15% and 30%, independent of their analysed mineral content. The results provided evidence that the fungal resistance of the investigated ancient wood is mainly determined from the special soil with its high mineral content.

Ancient oaks in the English Landscape

Ancient oaks in the English Landscape

Below- and above-ground biomass, structure and patterns in ancient lowland coppices

Ancient coppice woods are areas that reflect long-term human influence and contain high species biodiversity. In this type of forest we aimed to: (i) analyze the below- and above ground biomass of stools and estimate the age of largest stool; (ii) define a “zone of interference” for coppices; (iii) describe and classify variability in the shape and size of coppice stools; (iv) define the specific characteristics of the spatial distribution of stems and stools. The study was conducted in the Podyjí National Park, Czech Republic, where two old oak coppice stands were fully stem mapped: Lipina (3.90 ha) and Šobes (2.37 ha). Cores were processed using TimeTable and PAST4. Below- and above-ground biomass of the largest stools was computed using the data from terrestrial laser scanner. Tree zones of influence were analyzed with V-Late landscape analysis tools using Shape Index. The pair correlation function and L function were used to describe the spatial patterns of trees with DBH ≥ 7 cm, and the null model of Complete Spatial Randomness and Matérn cluster process were tested. For a modeled old stool, we estimated a ratio of 2:1 for above/below ground volume with no reduction of below ground biomass regarding the hollow roots. The age of the largest stool was estimated 825 ± 145 (SE) years. An “Inner Zone of Influence” was defined, with a total area covering 323 m2 ha-1. The median area of this zone in both plots was 0.40 m2 for all trees, 0.23 m2 for singles and 0.87 m2 for stools. The Matérn cluster process was successfully fitted to our empirical data. In this model, the mean cluster radius ranged between 1.9 to 2.1 m and mean number of points per cluster was 1.7 and 1.9. The most prevalent characteristics of these ancient oak coppices were their compact shape and clustered spatial distribution up to 10 m.

Valuing scattered trees from wood-pastures by farmers in a traditional rural region of Eastern Europe

Wood-pastures are agroforestry systems created and maintained by multifunctional management. As such, wood-pasture systems provide a model ecosystem for the sustainable integration of food production and biodiversity conservation. Values attached by the human societies to the woody vegetation from pastures were of crucial importance in shaping the physiognomy of these landscapes and their temporal dynamic. Nevertheless, these values went through sharp changes during the past decades, typically resulting in the transformation of wood-pasture systems either in pastures without trees, high forests or other landuse forms. Here we assess the values of scattered trees (mature and old) from oak wood-pastures by traditional farmers from a traditional rural region of Transylvania (Romania). Our study region is one of the richest ancient oak wood-pasture regions of lowland Europe. Mature scattered trees were appreciated mostly for their tangible values (especially shade for livestock) while old trees were appreciated for their intangible values (e.g. age, beauty and relaxation, cultural identity). When trees were perceived as deteriorating, farmers suggests their removal from wood-pastures. As the hollowing, often drying trees have disproportional habitat values for several organisms, maintaining these trees on managed pastures is a key conservation and sustainability challenge.

Multi-Stage Silicification of Pliocene Wood: Re-Examination of an 1895 Discovery from Idaho, USA

The 1895 discovery of a petrified tree near Clover Creek in south-central Idaho, USA, attracted worldwide attention and resulted in the naming of a new species of ancient oak, Quercinium pliocaenicum Schuster. For more than a century, the discovery has largely been forgotten, even though specimens reside in reputable museums. Reinvestigation of the locality in 2014/2015 resulted in newly-collected specimens and a wealth of new data. Optical microscopy confirms the cellular anatomy used for the original taxonomic study. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive electron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence microscopy reveal details of the mineralization, showing the presence of opal-CT as the primary component, with chalcedony as a lesser constituent. This mineralogy suggests petrifaction occurred in at least two stages, beginning with opalization of cellular tissue, leaving open vessels that became filled with chalcedony during a later mineralization episode. Clover Creek oak represents relict flora growing in a wetter climate before the uplift of the Cascade Range created a rain shadow that caused profound desertification of the inland Pacific Northwest.

Summer Rain

Summer Rain Jane Hicks (bio) For Ron Rash The second Sunday in July marks homecoming at Pine Grove Freewill Baptist, celebrated not with football and marching bands, but dinners on the ground among our departed and a background of good gospel music, down home food, and talk of recipes, quilts and bloodlines. After a pooling of memory, my great aunts send me to the old cemetery where my great-great grandfather rests under odd knob of quartz in a portion of graves marked with crude stones beneath a row of ancient oaks that whisper and jostle in the breeze. Out of the shade, in the heat of the new grounds marked with flat bronzes, silk flowers and American flags, I see the stir and bob of balloons, walk to where they lift and settle, a chain of them, a card tied to the string to trace flight, attract friends in far flung places. I stoop to retrieve the card, stub my toe upon my youth, see the carved name of love that tasted of lake water and Juicy Fruit on a blanket weighted with battered Keds and penny loafers. A scratchy transistor soundtrack of Dock of the Bay and Summer Rain, hourly newscasts of Chicago riots, assassinations of hope, Hanoi, Haiphong, the burning of draft cards like the new one in his pocket, all made me believe in nothing but green eyes with little boy lashes, summer freckled skin, smooth honeysuckle nights by the river with rain on the car roof. [End Page 110] He suffered awful in his mind, the aunties recall, like so many that went over there. They detail his end while we repack the bounty under rumbling threats. I promise to replace the fieldstone with one that named my ancestor. Rain lashes the windshield as I tune in the Oldies and Forever Young knifes my heart. I retrieve the balloon card from my pocket and drive toward the post office drop box to obey the careful crayon message “send me back.” [End Page 111] Jane Hicks Jane Hicks is retired as a teacher of gifted students and a guidance counselor. An avid quilter and NASCAR fan, she lives in Blountville, Tennessee, and is the author of Blood & Bone Remember: Poems from Appalachia (2005), a poetry collection. Her second book, Driving with the Dead, will be published in 2014 by the University Press of Kentucky. Copyright © 2013 Berea College

Elaphomyces cyanosporus new to Britain

During the 2011 BMS autumn foray we visited Yarner Wood belonging to the National Trust. This is one of the best ancient oak woodlands in Devon. It is on acid soil and was originally coppiced for charcoal production. Emerging from a bank near to a rather large oak was a black rounded object approx 1 cm across covered in fine warts. I assumed it was an immature Tuber species or, rather more exciting, Pachyphloeus melanoxanthus a rarity which I had collected the previous month. Closer inspection revealed a number of ascocarps. When cut it was clear that most of the collection was immature, however a turquoise interior was revealed in the one semi-mature specimen. I realised this was one of the rarely found black Elaphomyces species. The genus Elaphomyces is cosmopolitan yet it is difficult to ascertain the number of distinct species. Montecchi & Sarasini (2000) refer to “about 30 species” worldwide, and 98 legitimate names are listed on Index Fungorum but their synonymy is poorly understood. Apparently “Molecular information is presently lacking because extracting useable DNA for sequencing has been difficult for most Elaphomyces collections” (Castellano et al., 2011). Nineteen species of Elaphomyces are described from Europe in Funghi Ipogei d’Europa (Montecchi & Sarasini, 2000) though 21 species occur in their key. This publication is recognised as the most recent overview of the European hypogeous fungi. In Britain we seem to have far fewer species; with only five being described in Pegler et al. (1993) and one of them, E. citrinus, without exsiccata, is not considered by them as British. The FRDBI lists nine British species, the five in Pegler et al. (1993) and four others. Two of these, E. cervinus and E. leucocarpus are considered by Pegler et al. (1993) and by Montecchi & Sarasini to be synonyms of E. granulatus. A third species, E. asperulus, is rather doubtfully distinct from E. granulatus and no differences were found in the British material assigned here. Lastly, E. leucosporus is undoubtedly distinctly, but the British records were misdetermined. I therefore conclude that up to now there have been only four confirmed British species. Of these four accepted species, two are common throughout Britain, occurring with both deciduous and coniferous hosts; E. muricatus, with a marbled peridium in section and E. granulatus with a plain buff one. Both are gingery and warty and often have mycorrhizal roots surrounding their surface. They have a dark purple-black solid interior when the spores are mature. The other two species are black and have ELAPHOMYCES CYANOSPORUS new to Britain Caroline Hobart*

Development of Secondary Woodland in Oak Wood Pastures Reduces the Richness of Rare Epiphytic Lichens

Wooded pastures with ancient trees were formerly abundant throughout Europe, but during the last century, grazing has largely been abandoned often resulting in dense forests. Ancient trees constitute habitat for many declining and threatened species, but the effects of secondary woodland on the biodiversity associated with these trees are largely unknown. We tested for difference in species richness, occurrence, and abundance of a set of nationally and regionally red-listed epiphytic lichens between ancient oaks located in secondary woodland and ancient oaks located in open conditions. We refined the test of the effect of secondary woodland by also including other explanatory variables. Species occurrence and abundance were modelled jointly using overdispersed zero-inflated Poisson models. The richness of the red-listed lichens on ancient oaks in secondary woodland was half of that compared with oaks growing in open conditions. The species-level analyses revealed that this was mainly the result of lower occupancy of two of the study species. The tree-level abundance of one species was also lower in secondary woodland. Potential explanations for this pattern are that the study lichens are adapted to desiccating conditions enhancing their population persistence by low competition or that open, windy conditions enhance their colonisation rate. This means that the development of secondary woodland is a threat to red-listed epiphytic lichens. We therefore suggest that woody vegetation is cleared and grazing resumed in abandoned oak pastures. Importantly, this will also benefit the vitality of the oaks.