County Offaly County Offaly THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 John Feehan

Offaly County Council in association with the School of Biology and Environmental Science at UCD and the Heritage Council Compiled by

ISBN -13: 978-1-905254-21-7 John Feehan 1 - foreword:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:27 Page 1

County Offaly

THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007

Compiled by John Feehan

Offaly County Council in association with the School of Biology and Environmental Science at UCD and the Heritage Council

ISBN -13: 978-1-905254-21-7 1 - foreword:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:27 Page 2

Foreword

If we are to be effective custodians of our heritage of at hand. But they are so well hidden, and the wild nature, we need to know what plants and ani- naturalist is so blind, that it is only when he mals share the county with us, and where they live. sees the swarms of winged Insects that he be- This report attempts to provide an outline sketch of comes conscious of the multitude of larvae and that diversity – or, more accurately, of what we know pupae which he has overlooked.1 about it. It is written as an introductory overview for What we know is only a fraction of what remains to a general readership of Offaly people who have an in- be discovered. This highlights the endless scope there terest in and concern for the wild life and wild places is for further exploration. We need to know an awful of the county. It is not really intended for those who lot more if we are to ensure proper conservation of the would describe themselves as specialists. flora and fauna of the county. I have included checklists of species in different It has been hard to keep track of all the people who groups of plants and animals recorded for the county have provided information or helped in other ways where they could be compiled with some confidence. in the preparation of the Report. I hope I can remem- For many readers these lists will be mysterious-look- ber them all: Annette Anderson, Roy Anderson, Barry ing assemblages of Latin binomials before which the Cregg, Jim Curry, Jane Feehan, Garth Foster, Hubert eyes inevitably lose focus. But just remember that Fuller, Jeremy Gray, Alvin Helden, Fran Igoe, Daniel every one of these names stands for a unique species, Kelly, Ferdia Marnell, Roland McHugh, Barry McMa- whose structure has been carefully and meticulously hon, Brian Nelson, Mary O’Connell, Rita O’Shea, John described and published according to rigid interna- Prior, Gordon Purvis, Colm Ronayne, Olaf Schmidt, tionally agreed guidelines. Each is a creature of im- Mark Seaward, Michael Sheehy, Helen Sheridan, John mense complexity, and every one of them occupies a Smith, Martin Speight, Niall Sweeney, Val Trodd, unique corner of the natural world. All of these Wayne Trodd, John Whelan. The photographs on the species live out their lives in our midst, all enriching front cover are by Tom Egan and Gordon Purvis, that our human world on some level. on the back cover by Eddie Dunne. In most cases the checklists are little more The Report owes more to the enthusiasm and effi- informative than records of attendance. With the ciency of Amanda Pedlow, Heritage Officer for Offaly, exception of a very few groups such as flowering than it does to anybody else, myself included. plants, birds and mammals, we know little about the We hope this overview will help to inspire a new detailed distribution and status in the county of the generation of Offaly field naturalists to take up the different species – or their individual lives. Very often study of the wild creatures of the county, and begin the record of a species is based on nothing more than to experience for themselves at first hand the endless one or a few specimens captured on a few occasions in fascination and sense of fulfillment their study can just a few places. Read what one of the greatest of bring to people of every age and background. entomologists had to say about how little even he knew about the insects he studied so assiduously: I have made it my business for some years to John Feehan hunt out the larvae of our common Insects. I have searched the waters, both stagnant and flowing, and have pried into all accumulations of decaying organic matter that I have come across. I have particularly attended to the early stages of the Diptera [flies]. But I have to con- fess that nineteen-twentieths of the Diptera now buzzing about in my garden are known to me, if at all, only as items in a catalogue. No doubt a large proportion have been reared close

______1 L.C. Miall (1896). Round the Year. A Series of Short Nature-Studies.

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Introduction

Wild places Offaly’s Wild World Web When people first settled in Offaly over 9,000 years Offaly has many wild places, which are home to a ago everywhere was wild. Only very gradually did tremendous variety of different plant and animal we begin to make any serious inroads on Nature’s species. Some of these wild places, such as the bogs rule. At first our impact was little more than that of of Slieve Bloom and the Shannon Basin, cover large the animals with which we shared this world, but this areas. Woods are among the most important places for impact increased greatly with the advent of farming wild plants and animals. At one time native woods 6,000 years or so ago, when we started to make fields covered much of the county, but these disappeared for our crops and herds at the expense of natural gradually over the course of history; today we have a woodland. Long before modern times nearly all the large number of much smaller deciduous woods, all land that could be made productive or developed to the more precious because of their small size and carry our infrastructure had been taken from Nature. number. Hedgerows are like narrow strips of wood- So few natural places are left to us now that we need land, weaving a green web over the entire county that to treasure those that remain and do what we can to provides a place to live for countless species, many of extend their hold. them one-time woodland species. Waterways and All through our long prehistory and history, Nature has been on our doorstep – no longer it is true the untamed wilderness that was there be- fore we started to farm, but the experience of trees and flow- ers, birds and wind and stars, rocks and the sight and sound of rivers and the sea – that sat- isfied a deep psychological need in us. The places where Nature still breathes awake in us memories of that deeper childhood of our human species. The flowers and trees in every hedgerow awake them, the singing of the birds, other wetlands – of all sizes and shapes from the every rock outcrop shaped by time and the elements, Shannon to the smallest pond – are inhabited by a every stream that follows the form of the land. great variety of wild plants and animals. In fact every Some of the most significant places in the county, part of the county has its own unique mixture of some of those richest in species, have already been places where wild species live. designated as such and receive statutory protection Some of these wild species are large and familiar, (see map on pages 6-7). These however are relatively such as birds and mammals, trees and flowers, but the few and far between, and except for the National Na- vast majority are small creatures of which the most ture Reserve in Slieve Bloom cover a tiny area. But numerous are insects. What these lack in size they alongside these is a much larger number of places make up for in the amazing complexity of their struc- that, although they are not considered to be of suffi- ture and habits. There is more to amaze – make no cient importance to merit formal designation, are im- mistake about it, there is truly more to wonder at, portant reservoirs of natural diversity. They include more to bring us to our knees, than our short lifetimes all the woods and bogs in the county – especially the can ever encompass, in the lives of the wild things vast area of bog in production by Bord na Móna, found in the local pond, and along the fringe of the which has the potential to become the most extensive bog, and in the last bit of woodland in the parish. and important reservoir of natural diversity in Offaly once production ceases.

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The infrastructure of our human world is spread On the map on pages 6-7 you can see what this web across the county like a net. It is made up of dense of wild places might look from a great distance. What hubs – towns and villages – all linked together by a you cannot see on this scale is the cobweb of fine trellis of roads of different sizes, interspersed among threads linking all these geographically distinct areas. the smaller nodes of individual houses and the occa- The finest of these threads are the hedgerows and sional factory. Surrounding this infrastructure is all streams. Not only are these important habitats in their the land whose produce supports our lives: farmland own right, but they also provide routeways along under grass or other agricultural crops, plantations of which wild plants and animals can move with greater trees, bogs from which peat is being harvested, hills security – in their everyday lives or more slowly over from which sand and gravel are being extracted. time. But ramifying through this artificial world is an Wild plants and animals are largely – though by no ecological network or EcoNet that interlocks and in- means entirely – confined to those habitats that ap- terweaves its way through our artificial network of pear on the EcoNet map. The scale of the map is too cement and stone and steel. Within this network a small to show everything of course. Every single tree vast concourse of plant, animal and other living is an important habitat for wild things. Even a single species find their homes and make their own living. rock in your garden is a micro-habitat: turn it over and They often perform functions that are important or you will see the menagerie of small creatures it shel- even essential to our human well-being: but over and ters. We can define habitat in its broadest sense as any above their usefulness they enrich our human exis- place where natural processes and species predomi- tence by their presence. nate.

The nuclei of human settlement in the county

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INTRODUCTION

Hedges and field walls are the finest threads in the web of wild places that extends throughout the county. This is a small section of the first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map (1838), showing the hedged landscape south of Tullamore.

And Nature reaches out from its strongholds into In our lifetime we are experiencing – indeed, we our human world: occasionally to our annoyance, as are causing – the greatest mass extinction of living when ‘weeds’ invade our gardens and fields or mice species there has ever been on the earth. Plant and an- enter our homes: but almost invariably to enrich and imal species are disappearing at an unprecedented diversify our lives. When we withdraw our hold alto- rate. Some botanists calculate that 2,000 species a year gether it takes over entirely. are becoming extinct in tropical forests – and extinct means gone for ever. Estimates of total global species The sixth extinction loss range from 4,000 to 300,000 species a year, the We are enmeshed in biodiversity on a scale really be- vast majority of which we don’t even have names for. yond our comprehension. Our best guesses put the Much of this loss results from the destruction of trop- number of species on earth today at somewhere be- ical rain forests, which are disappearing at a rate of tween 3 and 100 million: different kinds of living perhaps 150,000 km2 a year, which is around 2% of the things, different species (the most popular estimate standing cover. If we continue the way we are half the being somewhere around 13 million), of which less species of plants and animals on earth could be gone than 2 million have actually been identified and de- by the end of the century. scribed and given proper names (75% are insects). It was concern over this appalling loss that led to Equally incomprehensible is its sheer abundance. It the Convention on Biological Diversity at Rio de has been calculated that in every square kilometre of Janeiro in 1992, to which Ireland signed up in 1996. In land there are as many as 10 billion living organisms. signing the Convention we took upon ourselves the

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obligation to halt the loss of biological diversity in Ire- since we joined the EU have seen the replacement of land, and to work to regain lost biodiversity: and fur- traditional pastureland with species-poor swards of ther afield, beyond our shores, to do what we can to ryegrass and white clover, the drainage of species-di- address the global loss. Allied to this, the EU has now verse wetlands, and the removal of hedges in order to set itself the target of halting habitat loss by 2010. Ire- make fields bigger and more suited to machinery. The land produced its National Biodiversity Plan in 2002, greatly increased use of fertilisers, herbicides and pes- and as part of that each local area is now required to ticides has contributed to the decline of countless draft its own Biodiversity Action Plan species. But on the other hand, the cutaway that remains Why is it so important? where Bord na Móna has removed the economic re- There are many reasons why the haemorrhaging of serves of peat from their great bogs has enormous po- biodiversity from the earth is so serious. There are tential for regeneration of biodiversity. Many farms economic reasons that have to do with its practical im- now participate in the Rural Environment Protection portance in our lives, such as regulation of climate Scheme (REPS), one of the obligations of which is and rainfall. And there is the fact that as yet undiscov- looking after and improving natural habitats on the ered species are a genetic treasure chest from which farm. Coillte now sets aside the 15% of its forest land medicine, farming and human welfare generally may with the highest biodiversity and manages this pri- benefit in all sorts of ways, when they are discovered marily to that end. And as important as all these pos- and their genetic potential is tapped by means of the itive developments is the fact that we as a community incredibly sophisticated tools increasingly available now have a much greater awareness of why it is so im- to us. There is the increased understanding of how the portant to maintain biodiversity and the wild places living world works that science derives from the which support it. study of new species. But over and above all of this there is the sheer wonder of it, the awesome complex- How little we know ity and diversity that indeed is the deepest reason The Biodiversity Convention places upon us the obli- most of the people who study these creatures do so in gation to protect our wild biological heritage. What the first place. It is experience of Nature’s transforma- makes this so challenging is that we have no inven- tive value that is the real, the deepest, reason most tory, no list of all the species we have or where they ecologists study biodiversity. live or how well they are doing. We do know a great And beyond this again, there is another reason why deal about birds, mammals and flowering plants: the we need to be concerned about the dimming of life’s species we have and their distribution, and what their rainbow which we are witnessing. It is wrong. Most of status is in the county – the ones we imagine Noah us are religious people at some level, some of us ticking off his list as they paraded two by two into the deeply so. If you believe in God, whatever your faith Ark in the most familiar early example of conserva- may be, you have to see the living creation as the first, tion in action! But in fact these large plants and ani- the most fundamental Book of Revelation. There is a mals account for only a small percentage of total profound ethical imperative to care for the diversity of biodiversity. There are enormous gaps in our knowl- life: first of all because it is that primary revelation, edge of invertebrates, which account for the over- through which God expressed himself for unimagin- whelmingly greater part of biodiversity, and of able epochs of time before our species appeared on non-flowering plants, fungi and lichens (to say noth- the evolutionary scene. And secondly, because we are ing of bacteria). When you begin to look really closely its custodians and its kin. at any habitat, a whole kaleidoscope of hitherto un- seen biological diversity springs into focus. The loss of Nature’s diversity in Offaly Certainly dozens of studies have been carried out Although it is nothing like that seen in tropical rain over the years that have looked at other groups in a forests, there has over the last fifty years been a con- very localized and uncoordinated way. Stephen siderable decline in Offaly’s biological diversity, Heery has brought these studies together and they mainly because of the decrease in the total area of habi- can be reviewed on Offaly Couny Council’s website: tat available to wild species. Nearly all of the raised but there may be other studies we don’t know about, bogs have been exploited on a large scale for peat ex- and certainly there will be many others in the years traction, and much of the blanket bog on Slieve Bloom ahead; these will be added to the list as they come to has been planted with conifers. Farm improvements our notice . (If you spot any omissions, or if you know

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of ongoing studies that add to our knowledge, we would really like to hear from you). But whatever about our knowledge of all these creatures globally, we know next to nothing about their status or distri- bution in Offaly, and for many of them it will be a long time before we find out. It will take lifetimes of explo- ration. One of the first challenges in our county biodiver- sity strategy must be to ascertain what we do know, and then try to fill the gaps as time goes by, so that we can plan for the sustaining of biodiversity in Offaly: to make sure in the first instance that we can meet the challenge of halting habitat loss by 2010 – and to move beyond that to restore what we can of what has been lost. But what we do know is that nearly all these crea- tures, whether known or as yet undiscovered in our midst, live within the habitats of the EcoNet. Which is why looking after the EcoNet is so very important. We should do everything we can: not only as a society by designating places for Nature and putting protective measures in place, but perhaps even more impor- tantly as local communities, as families and individu- als. Get to know the wild places that surround you: where they are and what lives in them. Look for ways to extend and bring them closer to you. So little is known about the detailed distribution of most invertebrate groups in Offaly in particular It could be YOU! that anyone undertaking a special study of any particular group is something of a pioneer. Even for better-known groups of invertebrates what we have Finding out more are little more than lists of species. Such lists are very Species lists can be compiled for a number of groups useful though, because the ecology of many of the of insects such as butterflies and dragonflies, but they species on the lists has been studied elsewhere, and are little more than lists, so limited at present is our we can draw conclusions about their ways of life in knowledge of the status and distribution of different Offaly from these studies. On the other hand, very species within the county. little is known anywhere about countless smaller The National Biological Records Centre has set species, so there is endless scope for original research about the task of compiling all existing data on the by young and old. A good example of what can be different groups of plants and animals in the country. discovered is the elucidation by Jane Feehan (then at But while such lists are an important starting point, a St Brendan’s Community School in Birr) of the more adequate understanding will require further detailed and hitherto unknown life history of the study of all groups of wild plants and animals in the tiny case-carrying leaf-mining moth Coleophora county in the future. Some of this study may be car- pyrhuipennella, a study which won her the Aer Lingus ried out by professional experts from outside the (now ESAT) Young Scientist of the Year title in 1994, county, and where resources are available they should and first prize in the European Youth Science be targeted at groups of particular significance on Contest. which our knowledge is currently very limited. There is much debate in ecological circles as to which groups are especially significant in this respect: especially as indicators of biodiversity in general. It can be argued that plants are the most fundamental indicator group,

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INTRODUCTION Quiet churches are houses of God filled with his silent presence. So too can people find a silence in the natural world in which they may sense God’s presence, even when they do not know how to pray.

We all need to escape sometimes. This Plan is about tak- ing care of those special places here in Offaly that we all like to escape to - those wild places that are such an im- portant part of what makes Bishop Michael Smith Offaly home. Catholic Bishop of Meath

Mundy (Birr) Rock star Once upon a time ‘bogman’ was a term of abuse. Nowadays we in Offaly are proud to be one of the counties with the most bogland, because It is the direct experience we value the enrichment that experi- of wild places and things at local level ence and appreciation of the natu- that brings the greatest enrichment. This ral world can bring to our is why it is so important to establish and lives. make accessible the local places where wild things are within each and every community in the county.

Brian Cowan T.D. (Clara) Minister for Finance Simon Casey (Ballycumber) Music star

I often hear the phrase ‘Think global, act local’. That’s what this Plan is about: looking in a new way at the special places and wildlife in our local area, and If you wish to know God, valuing them in a new way. What we have in our learn about his creation area is an important part of the national and the (St Columban). European picture. More importantly, our local biodiversity makes this a beautiful and interesting place to live, and to come home to.

Jane Feehan (Birr) Aer Lingus Young Scientist of the Year Bishop Willie Walsh European Union Youth Scientist Catholic Bishop of Killaloe

Offaly County Council has formulated a strategy for the places and things that make the world around us more diverse, more protection and enhancement of the Council’s natural heritage interesting, more beautiful, more inspiring. for the enjoyment of our own and future generations of Offaly people. The Council will be formulating a succession of action plans in the years and decades ahead as part of its Biodiversity Action There is a web of wild places spread all over the county. This Strategy. These will have practical, achievable aims and EcoNet is shown on the map on pages 6-7. The lives of all of us who outcomes. live or work in Offaly can be enriched by experience of the wild

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We need to look My after the places of nature home is the farmland of and appreciate them, so that Coolderry, where the fields are framed Offaly will be as rich a place by hedges, woods and bog, with all their great to live a hundred years variety of wild plants and animals. Places like that from now. make Offaly a richer and better place to live. They matter most of all to the people whose homes and farms are surrounded by these wild places.

Eugene O’Brien (Edenderry) Pure Mule

Tom Parlon T.D. (Coolderry) Offaly’s Biodiversity Action Minister for State Plan will make a difference to people at the Department of Finance right across the community, and it will have the capacity to enrich everyday life in Offaly. Our local biodiversity is an integral part of our local quality of life, and it’s Joe Dooley (Coolderry) something to be proud of and to Offaly hurling star protect.

If we lost the wild places of Olwyn Enright T.D. (Birr) Offaly as a result of progress we would Dáil Deputy for Laois-Offaly be paying a price that is too high. The better off we are the more we realise how much richer the special places of nature make our lives. More then ever, we have the resources and the edu- cation to come to know them better, and to look after them better.

The better off we are the more we realise how much richer the special If we do not make places of nature make our lives. Maybe for the small sacrifices today for the first time in history we have the resources and protection of eco-systems, we the education to come to know them are the executioners of better, and to look after them tomorrow. properly.

Miriam O’Callaghan (Tullamore) Our lives, the lives of all of us Camogie in Offaly, now and in the future can be Bishop Richard Clark enriched by experience of the wild things Anglican Bishop of Meath that make the world about us more diverse, more interesting, more beautiful, more inspiring. In the years to come a series of special access points to the county EcoNet (EcoNodes) will be developed. These are places where you will be able to see and feel what it is all about. You can follow the development of the County Biodiversity Strategy – and of Offaly’s EcoNet development – on the WildWeb section of the County Council website … Colin Gracey Methodist Moderator www.offalycoco.ie 11 © 2007 Offaly County Council 2 - Introduction:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:29 Page 12

INTRODUCTION

because ultimately all animal species depend on them all it takes. Look at a moss or beetle through a hand directly or indirectly. Birds are also an important indi- lens and you could be hooked for life! cator group. Among the invertebrates arguments are The great 18th century Swedish biologist Carl Lin- made for the particular value of many different naeus – the man who devised the binomial Latin sys- groups, among them ground beetles, hoverflies, bees, tem of scientific nomenclature we still use to formally moths and butterflies, and the tiny parasitic wasps name all plant and animals species – had a marvellous that prey on other invertebrates. An attempt will metaphor for biodiversity and the way in which the made in the years ahead to target these groups in par- microscope provides access to the world of smaller ticular in order to reach a better understanding of creatures. their status in the county, and to suggest ways in The museum of nature, like a palace, has an enor- which that understanding can be deepened. mous number of connected chambers, filled with the Professional experts are not the only ones who can stupendous contrivances and wonders of the Cre- increase our understanding of Offaly’s biodiversity ator, to each of which a place is assigned according however. Most of what we know of the status of dif- to its kind; to the greatest amphitheatres of nature ferent groups comes from the investigation of ama- the first entry is open to every one, but the smaller teurs. Amateur is a word that has come to have ones are usually shut; here there is need of skill to somewhat derogatory undertones. We speak of peo- unclose by slow degrees the doorway of each cham- ple who are less than truly competent as ‘mere ama- ber, within which a new world, as it were, displays teurs’: but the definition of an amateur is somebody itself before our eyes … The chief key for unfastening who is in love with his or her subject. Amateurs are the bars of this palace that has been for all the ages people who have come to see and appreciate the closed is afforded by the microscope, which gives us beauty and fascination of a particular group to such the same help in examining minute bodies that are an extent that its study has become an important part close to us as astronomers get from the telescope in of their lives. Any group of plants and animals has the the investigation of distant bodies in the heavens. capacity to evoke this wonder and interest and dedi- For many of us the opportunity to have this expe- cation if only you can find the opportunity to enter rience of Nature’s diversity is limited. We need a and catch a glimpse of its fascinating otherworld. It is forum where it can be provided more easily. For this easier to do this with groups like flowers and birds reason it has been decided (as part of the Offaly Bio- because they are our size and we can see them with- diversity Strategy) to set about the establishment of out the help of a microscope or hand lens. But that is an Offaly Naturalists Field Club.

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Domain Procaryota (procaryotes)

Bacteria ochre, a product of the past activity of amazing bacte- ria that obtain their energy by oxidying iron salts in Meagre though our knowledge of the smaller animals the peat. Two other processes vital to our well-being and plants that live in the county may be, it is ency- that are dependent on bacterial ecosystems are the clopaedic compared with what we know about the formation of compost and sewage decomposition. bacteria of Offaly. Yet no group of living things is It is probably safe to say that whereas it will take more ubiquitous or pervasive, or influences our living many years or decades before we have a good picture on so many levels. Indeed, life would not be possible of the many currently obscure groups of plants and without bacteria. We know so little about them simply animals that occur in Offaly, it could be centuries be- because they are so small, and it is only in recent fore we have a good understanding of bacterial decades the techniques that enable us to get a clear ecosystems and biodiversity in the county. The first picture of their complexity – and more recently still of step is just knowing this exciting challenge lies ahead their diversity – have become available. It now ap- of us, and being aware the techniques that make it pears likely that the genetic diversity of bacteria sur- possible to tackle are becoming more widely accessi- passes that of all other living things together. ble. After that, every ecological study that takes some Most of us think of bacteria in negative terms, but account of bacterial biodiversity is a further step in the ‘bugs’ that cause so many of the diseases that the right direction. plague us are a tiny minority. On the positive side, our bodies can almost be described as a network of bacte- rial ecosystems. Agriculture would be very different without the well-nigh miraculous ability of certain bacteria to package the elemental nitrogen that makes up four-fifths of the atmosphere (and which is beyond the chemical reach of plants in a form they can make use of and in turn pass on to an- imals). These bacteria occur in nodules on the roots of plants in the pea family (and a few oth- ers), and they play a vital role in the mainte- nance of soil fertility and in supplying the nitrogen that is essential for protein manufac- ture in plants and animals. These nitrogen fix- ers are one special component of an immensely complex bacterial ecosystem in soils, of which we currently know next to nothing with spe- cific regard to Offaly – or indeed anywhere else. Bacteria are invisible without the help of a powerful microscope, but we are surrounded on all sides by their macroscopic expression: indications – field marks as they are sometimes called by ecologists – of the ubiquitous pres- ence and activity of bacteria. Every farmer knows and loves the smell of newly ploughed earth, which is largely a by-product of the ac- tivity of filamentous bacteria (actinomycetes). Around the edges of many cutaway bogs Bord na Móna people will have noticed spreads of

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Rhizopods are amoeba-like organisms that surround themselves with shells. Many species live in carpets of sphagnum. Chlamydophrys labyrinthuloides is one of the most extraordinary.

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Domain Eucaryota (eucaryotes)

A eucaryote is an organism with a complex cell or cells, in which the genetic material is organised into a nucleus or nuclei enclosed by a membrane. Eucaryotes comprise animals, plants and fungi – which are mostly multicellular – as well as various other groups that are collectively classified as protists (many of which are also multicellular). In contrast, procaryotes are organisms (mostly bacteria) that are without nuclei and other complex cell structures. All eucaryotes share a common origin, and are often treated formally as a domain. The name comes from the Greek words eu (meaning good) and karyon (meaning nut, in reference to the cell nucleus). Adapted from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.

“In these narrow Engines there is more curious Mathematicks; and the civility of these little Citizens more neatly sets forth the Wis- dom of their Maker” Sir Thomas Browne

The nearly invisible wild world This report explores the extent of our knowledge of wild life in Offaly. For many of us ‘wildlife’ means birds and mammals – but the term also embraces all the smaller animals (especially insects, which account for three-quarters of all described species): as well as plants and fungi. But apart from all these more-or-less visible creatures there is an unseen world of biodiver- sity that comprises an enormously varied assemblage of single-celled creatures of varied ancestry collec- tively referred to as protists or protoctists. Most protists are single-celled, but their complexity brings home at a glance just what an amazingly so- phisticated piece of machinery the living cell is! Some are more animal-like than others: these are the proto- zoa; others have plant affinities (these are assigned to several phyla of algae), and yet others are closer to fungi (the slime moulds and water moulds). Bacteria were at one time lumped in with the protists, but now that we know more about them they are in a domain of their own.

Single-celled animals PROTOCTISTS Nucleated micro-organisms (excluding plants, animals tifers, nematodes, and other animalcules of many and fungi) that evolved by symbiotic integration of at kinds, some of the most fascinating animals on earth, least two different kinds of former free-living bacteria. yet so tiny the unaided human eye sees them as mere specks, if at all. And along with these extraordinary animals is an immensely busy traffic of various green We will have little to say – in this first report any- protists whizzing about their business. And there are way – about these amazing little creatures: simply be- lots and lots of desmids and other small algae. We cause we know next to nothing about their status in know next to nothing about the life of Offaly on this Offaly at present – even though they are everywhere. scale, and yet there is probably not a neglected rain If you examine some of the water from a moss-choked gutter in the county that does not have water bears roof gutter with a compound microscope, you will be and all the many tiny plants and animals that people astonished at what lives there: water bears and ro- the miniature ecosystem that is their world.

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Slime moulds (from Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur, 1904). It gives a vivid glimpse of the extraordinary beauty and variety of these strange organisms.

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The exciting thing is that this hidden mini-universe Phylum Amoebozoa still awaits its first Offaly explorers: minds young or old (you can never be too much of one or the other). Class Mycetozoa (slime moulds) To gain access to this world you need to wear glasses: Slime moulds were traditionally regarded as fungi but in this case the glasses of the compound microscope. are now recognised as a distinct phylum of protists. Which maybe costs €1000, around the price of an av- The slime moulds likely to attract attention are colour- erage computer: and there is as much or more to stim- ful jelly-like blobs on vegetation (two common species ulate the mind and spirit in personal use of the are bright yellow in one species, pink in the other). microscope as any computer can offer. No school The blob is composed of an aggregate of individual should be without one, and the ancillary projection amoebae, which have up to this been living appar- equipment that enables its discoveries to be shared ently independent and separate lives, typically in soil with a class. It is one of the great privileges of our age or on tree bark. They feed by engulfing bacteria, fungi – up there along with the wonder of the internet – that and decaying organic particles. But then, when they such equipment is now available and not beyond the sense stressful change in their surroundings they all budget of any school that understands how much is come together to form the blob, which over a period has to give: understands enough to want it and make of days develops into a differentiated fruiting body it happen. that produces spores. These germinate to form new amoebae. The drawing of slime moulds on the left is from a book published at the beginning of the last century.

The slime moulds of Offaly1 CERATIOMYXALES Hemitrichia (Hyporhamma) abietina Stemonitopsis typhina Ceratiomyxa (Famintzinia) fruticulosa H. calyculata PHYSARALES H. pardina ECHINOSTELIALES Badhamia affinis Metatrichia floriformis Echinostelium minutum B. lilacina Perichaena chrysosperma B. panacea LICEALES P. corticalis Craterium minutum Cribraria argillacea P. depressa Diderma chondrioderma C. aurantiaca Trichia botrytis D. deplanatum C. cancellata T. decipiens D. floriforme Dictydiaethalium plumbeum T. affinis D. hemisphaericum Enteridium (Reticularia) lycoperdon T. persimilis D. simplex E. splendens T. munda D. spumarioides Licea clarkii T. scabra Didymium difforme L. denudescens T. varia D. melanospermum L. marginata STEMONITALES D. nigripes L. microscopica Amaurochaete (Lachnobolus) atra D. squamulosum L. nannengae Collaria arcyrionema Fuligo septica v. flava L. parasitica Comatricha nigra Leocarpus fragilis L. pygmaea C. pulchella Mucilago crustaceum Lycogala epidendrum sensu lato C. tenerrima Physarum cinereum L. exiguum Enerthenema papillatum P. leucophaeum Tubifera ferruginosa (Tubulifera arach- Lamproderma columbinum P. nutans (P. album) noidea) L. scintillans P. psittacinum TRICHIALES Macbrideola cornea P. pusillum Arcyria cinerea Paradiacheopsis solitaria P. viride v. viride A. denudata Stemonitis axifera A. ferruginea S. flavogenita A. incarnata S. fusca 1 Compiled by Roland McHugh. A. nutans S. nigrescens (placed by Lado in A. pomiformis S. fusca) Calomyxa metallica S. virginiensis

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Only a few experts have collected and studied years. One of the species he found in Offaly (Licea nen- slime moulds in Offaly: most of what we know is due nengae) has not been recorded anywhere else in to research carried out by Roland McHugh in recent Britain or Ireland.

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Kingdom Plantae: plants

Vascular plants: flowering plants, low nutrient availability – because this is the natural ferns and their relatives state of things – so that when an abundance of nitrate or phosphate is supplied they are smothered by the small handful of species that are able to take advan- tage of this nutrient affluence. Among the plants that have suffered most in this regard are those that grew in the grasslands that were at the heart of Offaly farm- ing until fifty or so years ago: essentially semi-natural communities which received little in the way of fer- tilisers. Our priorities now with regard to the biodiversity of these habitats should be to identify and retain the few that are left to us; and to seek for opportunities to restore them, especially in contexts that make eco- nomic as well as ecological sense. The current REPS, and the agri-environmental schemes that will evolve from it in coming decades, can make a critical contri- bution in this regard.

What we know Diligent observation by a small number of dedicated botanists over many years has resulted in a picture of Bee orchid the geographical distribution of flowering (and other The vegetation of today’s earth is dominated by flow- vascular) plants in the county (and indeed every other ering plants. They are the cornerstone of biodiversity county) that is more detailed than for any other group because the communities they constitute provide the in the flora. This information is summarised in the habitats for the myriad animal species that, directly splendid Atlas of the British and Irish Flora produced in or indirectly, all ultimately depend on them for food 2002, which is based on the records of the County and shelter. The variety of wild flowers, trees and Recorders of the Botanical Society of the British Isles shrubs is one of the most enriching things in our en- and other workers. There is still much to discover vironment not only because of this key role in the about the detailed distribution of wild plants in the maintenance of biodiversity overall, but because it en- county however, and this is something to which every- hances it as a place to live and grow up in. one with an interest can contribute. But recording the The total number of flowering plants and ferns occurrence of a species is really only a first step. Every recorded for Offaly is 718, and this is not that different species – even the most common – has a story unique from what it was fifty or a hundred years ago. The to itself to tell. Each species lives a life different from only plant known to have disappeared from the all the others, and is equipped in all sorts of special county (and in doing so from Ireland as a whole) is ways for this particular role. Exploring the lives of rannock rush, which was growing in Turraun Bog be- flowers is an adventure that lasts a lifetime. Knowing fore Bord na Móna began work there. What has what names to call them is only the start. This is the changed dramatically though is the abundance of reason Offaly County Council will publish in 2008 The many of these species, and therefore the contribution Wildflowers of Offaly: a book that will be not just a they make to the enhancement of our own lives. The guide to their names, but an introduction to the fasci- two main reasons for this decline are loss of habitat (es- nating lives they lead for anybody who is interested. pecially of bogland), and nutrient enrichment. Most plants are adapted to live in conditions of moderate to

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The vascular plants of Offaly1

Acer campestre Field maple Arrhenatherum elatius False oat-grass Acer pseudoplatanus Sycamore Artemisia vulgaris Mugwort Achillea millefolium Yarrow Arum maculatum Lords-and-Ladies Achillea ptarmica Sneezewort Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Black spleenwort Acinos arvensis Basil thyme (1991) Asplenium ruta-muraria Wall-rue Aconitum napellus sens. lat. Monk’s-hood Asplenium trichomanes subsp.quadrivalen Maidenhair Adiantum capillus-veneris Maidenhair fern spleenwort Aegopodium podagraria Ground-elder Aster (alien N. American taxa) Michaelmas-daisies Aesculus hippocastanum Horse-chestnut Athyrium filix-femina Lady-fern Aethusa cynapium Fool’s parsley Atriplex patula Common orache Agrimonia eupatoria Agrimony Atriplex prostrata Spear-leaved orache Agrimonia procera Fragrant agrimony Atropa belladonna Deadly nightshade Agrostis canina Velvet bent Avena fatua Wild-oat Agrostis capillaris Common bent Avenula sativa Oat Agrostis gigantea Black bent Avena strigosa Bristle oat Agrostis stolonifera Creeping bent Baldellia ranunculoides Lesser Water-plantain Aira caryophyllea Silver Hair-grass Ballota nigra Black Horehound Aira praecox Early Hair-grass Barbarea intermedia Medium-flowered Winter-cress Ajuga reptans Bugle Barbarea vulgaris Winter-cress Alchemilla filicaulis subsp. vestita Ladie’s-mantle Bellis perennis Daisy Alchemilla xanthochlora Ladie’s-mantle Berula erecta Lesser Water-parsnip Alisma lanceolatum Narrow-leaved Water-plantain Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Root beet Alisma plantago-aquatica Water-plantain Betula pendula Silver birch Alliaria petiolata Garlic mustard Betula pubescens Downy birch Allium ursinum Ramsons Bidens cernua Nodding bur-marigold Allium vineale Wild onion Bidens tripartita Trifid bur-marigold Alnus glutinosa Alder Blackstonia perfoliata Yellow-wort Alnus incana Grey alder Blechnum spicant Hard-fern Alopecurus geniculatus Marsh foxtail Botrychium lunaria Moonwort Alopecurus pratensis Meadow foxtail Brachypodium pinnatum Tor-grass Amaranthus retroflexus Common amaranth Brachypodium sylvaticum False brome Ambrosia artemisifolia Ragweed Brassica napus Rape Anacamptis pyramidalis Pyramidal orchid Brassica rapa Turnip Anagallis arvensis Scarlet pimpernel Briza media Quaking-grass Anagallis minima Chaffweed Bromopsis erecta Upright brome Anagallis tenella Bog pimpernel Bromopsis ramosa Hairy-brome Anchusa arvensis Bugloss Bromus commutatus Meadow brome Andromeda polifolia Bog-rosemary Bromus hordeaceus Soft-brome Anemone nemorosa Wood anemone Bromus lepidus Slender Soft-brome Anemone ranunculoides Yellow anemone Buddleja davidii Butterfly-bush Angelica sylvestris Wild angelica Butomus umbellatus Flowering-rush Anisantha sterilis Barren brome Buxus sempervirens Box Antennaria dioica Mountain everlasting Calendula officinalis Pot marigold Anthemis cotula Stinking chamomile Callitriche obtusangula Blunt-fruited water-starwort Anthoxanthum odoratum Sweet Vernal-grass Callitriche stagnalis Common water-starwort Anthriscus caucalis Bur chervil Calluna vulgaris Heather Anthriscus sylvestris Cow parsley Caltha palustris Marsh-marigold Anthyllis vulneraria Kidney Vetch Calystegia pulchra Hairy bindweed Antirrhinum majus Snapdragon Calystegia sepium Hedge bindweed Aphanes arvensis Parsley-piert Calystegia silvatica Large bindweed Aphanes australis Slender Parsley-piert Campanula rotundifolia Harebell Apium inundatum Lesser Marshwort Campanula trachelium Nettle-leaved bellflower Apium inundatum x A. nodiflorum Capsella bursa-pastoris Shepherd’s-purse Apium nodiflorum Fool’s-water-cress Cardamine flexuosa Wavy bitter-cress Aquilegia vulgaris Columbine Cardamine hirsuta Hairy bitter-cress Arabidopsis thaliana Thale cress Cardamine pratensis Cuckooflower Arabis hirsuta Hairy rock-cress Carduus crispus Welted thistle Arctium minus Lesser burdock Carduus tenuiflorus Slender thistle Arenaria serpyllifolia Thyme-leaved sandwort Carex acuta Slender tufted-sedge Arenaria serpyllifolia subsp. serpylli. Carex acutiformis Lesser pond-sedge Arenaria serpyllifolia subsp.leptoclad. Carex appropinquata Fibrous tussock-sedge Armoracia rusticana Horse-radish Carex binervis Green-ribbed sedge Species in red are protected by law. The date in brackets is the most recent record of these species.

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Carex caryophyllea Spring-sedge Cirsium palustre Marsh Thistle Carex curta White sedge Cirsium vulgare Spear Thistle Carex diandra Lesser tussock-sedge Cladium mariscus Great fen-sedge Carex dioica Dioecious sedge Clematis vitalba Traveller’s-joy Carex disticha Brown sedge Clinopodium acinos Basil thyme Carex divulsa Grey Sedge Coeloglossum viride Frog orchid Carex echinata Star sedge Conium maculatum Hemlock Carex elata Tufted-sedge Conopodium majus Pignut Carex flacca Glaucous sedge Convolvulus arvensis Field bindweed Carex hirta Hairy sedge Conyza canadensis Canadian fleabane Carex hostiana Tawny sedge Cornus sanguinea Dogwood Carex hostiana x C. viridula Corylus avellana Hazel Carex laevigata Smooth-stalked sedge Cotoneaster horizontalis Wall cotoneaster Carex lasiocarpa Slender sedge Cotoneaster microphyllus Small-leaved cotoneasters Carex limosa Bog-sedge Cotoneaster simonsii Himalayan cotoneaster Carex nigra Common sedge Crataegus laevigata x C. monogyna Carex otrubae False fox-sedge Crataegus monogyna Hawthorn Carex otrubae x remota Crepis biennis Rough Hawk’s-beard Carex ovalis Oval sedge Crepis capillaris Smooth Hawk’s-beard Carex pallescens Pale sedge Crepis paludosa Marsh Hawk’s-beard Carex panicea Carnation sedge Crepis vesicaria Beaked Hawk’s-beard Carex paniculata Greater tussock-sedge Crocosmia aurea x C. pottsii Montbretia Carex pendula Pendulous sedge Cymbalaria muralis Ivy-leaved toadflax Carex pilulifera Pill Sedge Cynosurus cristatus Crested dog’s-tail Carex pseudocyperus Cyperus sedge Cytisus scoparius Broom Carex pulicaris Flea sedge Dactylis glomerata Cock’s-foot Carex remota Remote sedge Dactylorhiza fuchsii Common spotted-orchid Carex riparia Greater pond-sedge Dactylorhiza incarnata Early marsh-orchid Carex rostrata Bottle sedge Dactylorhiza maculata Heath spotted-orchid Carex spicata Spiked sedge Dactylorhiza majalis Western marsh-orchid Carex strigosa Thin-spiked wood-sedge Dactylorhiza traunsteineri Narrow-leaved marsh-orchid Carex sylvatica Wood-sedge Danthonia decumbens Heath-grass Carex vesicaria Bladder-sedge Datura stramonium Thorn-apple Carex viridula subsp. brachyrrhyncha Daucus carota Wild carrot Carex viridula subsp. oedocarpa Deschampsia cespitosa Tufted hair-grass Carex viridula subsp. viridula Deschampsia flexuosa Wavy hair-grass Carlina vulgaris Carline thistle Descurainia sophia Flixweed Carpinus betulus Hornbeam Digitalis purpurea Foxglove Carum carvi Caraway Diplotaxis muralis Annual wall-rocket Castanea sativa Sweet chestnut Draba muralis Wall whitlowgrass Catabrosa aquatica Whorl-grass Drosera anglica Great sundew Catapodium rigidum Fern-grass Drosera anglica x D. rotundifolia Centaurea nigra Common knapweed Drosera intermedia Oblong-leaved sundew Centaurea scabiosa Greater knapweed Drosera rotundifolia Round-leaved sundew Centaurium erythraea Common centaury Dryopteris aemula Hay-scented buckler-fern Centranthus ruber Red valerian Dryopteris affinis Scaly male-fern Cerastium diffusum Sea mouse-ear Dryopteris carthusiana Narrow buckler-fern Cerastium fontanum Common mouse-ear Dryopteris dilatata Broad buckler-fern Cerastium glomeratum Sticky mouse-ear Dryopteris filix-mas Male-fern Cerastium tomentosum Snow-in-summer Eleocharis acicularis Needle Spike-rush Ceterach officinarum Rustyback Eleocharis multicaulis Many-stalked Spike-rush Chaenorhinum minus Small toadflax Eleocharis palustris Common Spike-rush Chaerophyllum temulum Rough chervil Eleocharis quinqueflora Few-flowered Spike-rush Chelidonium majus Greater celandine Eleocharis uniglumis Slender spike-rush Chenopodium album agg. Fat-hen Eleogiton fluitans Floating club-rush Chenopodium bonus-henricus Good-King-Henry Elodea canadensis Canadian waterweed Chenopodium rubrum Red goosefoot Elymus caninus Bearded couch Chrysanthemum segetum Corn marigold Elytrigia repens Common couch Chrysosplenium oppositifolium Opposite-leaved golden- Empetrum nigrum Crowberry saxifrage Epilobium angustifolium Rosebay willowherb Cicerbita macrophylla Common blue-sow-thistle Epilobium brunnescens New Zealand willowherb Cichorium intybus Chicory Epilobium ciliatum American willowherb Circaea lutetiana Enchanter’s-nightshade Epilobium hirsutum Great willowherb Cirsium arvense Creeping thistle Epilobium montanum Broad-leaved willowherb Cirsium dissectum Meadow thistle Epilobium obscurum Short-fruited willowherb Cirsium dissectum x C. palustre Epilobium palustre Marsh willowherb

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Epilobium parviflorum Hoary willowherb Galeopsis speciosa Large-flowered hemp-nettle Epipactis helleborine Broad-leaved helleborine Galeopsis tetrahit Common hemp-nettle Epipactis palustris Marsh helleborine Galium aparine Cleavers Epipactis phyllanthes Green-flowered helleborine Galium mollugo Hedge bedstraw Equisetum arvense Field horsetail Galium odoratum Woodruff Equisetum arvense x E. fluviatile Shore horsetail Galium palustre Common marsh-bedstraw Equisetum fluviatile Water horsetail Galium saxatile Heath bedstraw Equisetum hyemale Rough horsetail Galium uliginosum Fen bedstraw Equisetum palustre Marsh horsetail Galium verum Lady’s bedstraw Equisetum sylvaticum Wood horsetail Gentianella amarella Autumn gentian Equisetum telmateia Great horsetail Gentianella campestris Field gentian Equisetum variegatum Variegated horsetail Geranium dissectum Cut-leaved crane’s-bill Erica cinerea Bell heather Geranium lucidum Shining crane’s-bill Erica tetralix Cross-leaved heath Geranium molle Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill Erigeron acer Blue fleabane Geranium pratense Meadow crane’s-bill Erigeron karvinskianus Mexican fleabane Geranium pyrenaicum Hedgerow crane’s-bill Erinus alpinus Fairy foxglove Geranium robertianum Herb-Robert Eriophorum angustifolium Common cottongrass Geranium sanguineum Bloody crane’s-bill Eriophorum gracile Slender cottongrass (1997) Geum rivale Water avens Eriophorum latifolium Broad-leaved cottongrass Geum rivale x G. urbanum Hybrid avens Eriophorum vaginatum Hare’s-tail cottongrass Geum urbanum Wood avens Erodium moschatum Musk stork’s-bill Glechoma hederacea Ground-ivy Erophila glabrescens Glabrous whitlowgrass Glyceria declinata Small sweet-grass Erophila verna agg, Common whitlowgrasses Glyceria fluitans Floating sweet-grass Erucastrum gallicum Hairy rocket Glyceria fluitans x G. notata Hybrid sweet-grass Erysimum cheiranthoides Treacle-mustard Glyceria maxima Reed sweet-grass Erysimum cheiri Wallflower Glyceria notata Plicate sweet-grass Euonymus europaeus Spindle Gnaphalium sylvaticum Heath cudweed Eupatorium cannabinum Hemp-agrimony Gnaphalium uliginosum Marsh cudweed Euphorbia cyparissias Cypress spurge Groenlandia densa Opposite-leaved pondweed (1993) Euphorbia exigua Dwarf spurge Gymnadenia conopsea Fragrant orchid Euphorbia helioscopia Sun spurge Gymnadenia conopsea subsp. conopsea Euphorbia lathyris Caper spurge Hedera helix Ivy Euphorbia peplus Petty spurge Helianthus annuus Sunflower Euphrasia arctica subsp. borealis Helictotrichon pubescens Downy oat-grass Euphrasia micrantha Heracleum mantegazzianum Giant hogweed Euphrasia nemorosa Heracleum sphondylium Hogweed Euphrasia officinalis Eyebrights Hesperis matronalis Dame’s-violet Euphrasia rostkoviana subsp.rostkoviana Hieracium agg. Hawkweeds Euphrasia scottica Hippuris vulgaris Mare’s-tail Fagus sylvatica Beech Holcus lanatus Yorkshire-fog Fallopia convolvulus Black-bindweed Holcus mollis Creeping soft-grass Fallopia japonica Japanese knotweed Hordeum secalinum Meadow barley (1998) Fallopia sachalinensis Giant knotweed Humulus lupulus Hop Festuca arundinacea Tall fescue Huperzia selago Fir clubmoss Festuca filiformis Fine-leaved sheep’s-fescue Hyacinthoides hispanica Spanish bluebell Festuca gigantea Giant fescue Hyacinthoides non-scripta Bluebell Festuca ovina Sheep’s-fescue Hydrocharis morsus-ranae Frogbit Festuca pratensis Meadow fescue Hydrocotyle vulgaris Marsh pennywort Festuca pratensis x Lolium perenne Hybrid fescue Hymenophyllum wilsonii Wilson’s filmy-fern Festuca rubra Red fescues Hyoscyamus niger Henbane Filipendula ulmaria Meadowsweet Hypericum androsaemum Tutsan Foeniculum vulgare Fennel Hypericum humifusum Trailing St John’s-wort Forsythia suspensa x F. viridissima Forsythia Hypericum maculatum Imperforate St John’s-wort Fragaria vesca Wild strawberry Hypericum perforatum Perforate St John’s-wort Fragaria x ananassa Garden strawberry Hypericum pulchrum Slender St John’s-wort Frangula alnus Alder buckthorn Hypericum tetrapterum Square-stalked St John’s-wort Fraxinus excelsior Ash Hypochaeris radicata Cat’s-ear Fuchsia magellanica Fuchsia Ilex aquifolium Holly Fumaria bastardii Tall ramping-fumitory Impatiens glandulifera Indian balsam Fumaria capreolata White ramping-fumitory Iris foetidissima Stinking iris Fumaria muralis Common ramping-fumitory Iris pseudacorus Yellow iris Fumaria officinalis Common fumitory Isolepis setacea Bristle club-rush Galanthus nivalis Snowdrop Jasione montana Sheep’s-bit Galeopsis angustifolia Red hemp-nettle (1991) Juncus acutiflorus Sharp-flowered rush Galeopsis bifida Bifid hemp-nettle Juncus articulatus Jointed rush

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Juncus bulbosus Bulbous rush Malus sylvestris Apples Juncus conglomeratus Compact rush Malva sylvestris Common mallow Juncus effusus Soft-rush Matricaria discoidea Pineappleweed Juncus effusus x J. inflexus Meconopsis cambrica Welsh poppy Juncus inflexus Hard rush Medicago lupulina Black medick Juncus squarrosus Heath rush Melampyrum pratense Common cow-wheat Juncus subnodulosus Blunt-flowered rush Melica uniflora Wood melick Juncus tenuis Slender rush Melissa officinalis Balm Juniperus communis Common juniper Mentha aquatica Water mint Knautia arvensis Field scabious Mentha aquatica x M. arvensis Whorled mint Koeleria macrantha Crested hair-grass Mentha aquatica x M. spicata Peppermint Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatu Yellow Mentha arvensis Corn mint archangel Mentha arvensis x M. spicata Bushy mint Lamium album White dead-nettle Mentha spicata Spear mint Lamium amplexicaule Henbit dead-nettle Mentha suaveolens Round-leaved mint Lamium hybridum Cut-leaved dead-nettle Menyanthes trifoliata Bogbean Lamium purpureum Red dead-nettle Mercurialis perennis Dog’s mercury Lapsana communis Nipplewort Milium effusum Wood millet Larix decidua European larch Minuartia hybrida Fine-leaved sandwort Larix decidua x L. kaempferi Hybrid larch Moehringia trinervia Three-nerved sandwort Larix kaempferi Japanese larch Molinia caerulea Purple moor-grass Lathraea squamaria Toothwort Monotropa hypopitys Yellow bird’s-nest Lathyrus linifolius Bitter-vetch Montia fontana Blinks Lathyrus palustris Marsh pea Mycelis muralis Wall lettuce Lathyrus pratensis Meadow vetchling Myosotis arvensis Field forget-me-not Lemna gibba Fat duckweed Myosotis discolor Changing forget-me-not Lemna minor Common duckweed Myosotis laxa Tufted forget-me-not Lemna trisulca Ivy-leaved duckweed Myosotis scorpioides Water forget-me-not Lens culinaris Lentil Myosotis secunda Creeping forget-me-not Leontodon autumnalis Autumn hawkbit Myrica gale Bog-myrtle Leontodon hispidus Rough hawkbit Myriophyllum alterniflorum Alternate water-milfoil Leontodon saxatilis Lesser hawkbit Myriophyllum spicatum Spiked water-milfoil Leucanthemum vulgare Oxeye daisy Myriophyllum verticillatum Whorled water-milfoil Leucojum aestivum Summer snowflake Nardus stricta Mat-grass Ligustrum ovalifolium Garden privet Narthecium ossifragum Bog asphodel Ligustrum vulgare Wild privet Neotinea maculata Dense-flowered orchid Linaria purpurea Purple toadflax Neottia nidus-avis Bird’s-nest orchid Linaria vulgaris Common toadflax Nuphar lutea Yellow water-lily Linum catharticum Fairy flax Nymphaea alba White water-lily Linum usitatissimum Flax Odontites vernus Red bartsia Listera cordata Lesser twayblade Oenanthe aquatica Fine-leaved water-dropwort Listera ovata Common twayblade Oenanthe crocata Hemlock water-dropwort Lithospermum arvense Field gromwell Oenanthe fistulosa Tubular water-dropwort Lithospermum officinale Common gromwell Oenanthe fluviatilis River water-dropwort Littorella uniflora Shoreweed Oenothera glazioviana Large-flowered evening- Lolium multiflorum Italian rye-grass primrose Lolium multiflorum x L. perenne Omalotheca sylvatica Heath cudweed (1900) Lolium perenne Perennial rye-grass Ononis repens Common restharrow Lonicera nitida Wilson’s honeysuckle Ophioglossum vulgatum Adder’s-tongue Lonicera periclymenum Honeysuckle Ophrys apifera Bee orchid Lotus corniculatus Common bird’s-foot-trefoil Ophrys insectifera Fly orchid Lotus pedunculatus Greater bird’s-foot-trefoil Orchis mascula Early-purple orchid Luzula campestris Field wood-rush Orchis morio Green-winged orchid Luzula multiflora Heath wood-rush Oreopteris limbosperma Lemon-scented fern Luzula pilosa Hairy wood-rush Origanum vulgare Wild marjoram Luzula sylvatica Great wood-rush Orobanche hederae Ivy broomrape Lychnis flos-cuculi Ragged-robin Orobanche minor Common broomrape Lycopersicon esculentum Tomato Orthilia secunda Serrated wintergreen Lycopodiella inundata Marsh clubmoss (c.1988) Osmunda regalis Royal vern Lycopodium clavatum Stag’s-horn clubmoss Oxalis acetosella Wood-sorrel Lycopus europaeus Gipsywort Papaver argemone Prickly poppy Lysimachia nemorum Yellow pimpernel Papaver dubium Long-headed poppy Lysimachia nummularia Creeping-Jenny Papaver dubium subsp. dubium Lysimachia vulgaris Yellow loosestrife Papaver dubium subsp. lecoqii Lythrum portula Water-purslane Papaver hybridum Rough poppy (1900) Lythrum salicaria Purple-loosestrife Papaver rhoeas Common poppy

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Papaver somniferum Opium poppy Potamogeton natans Broad-leaved pondweed Parietaria judaica Pellitory-of-the-wall Potamogeton obtusifolius Blunt-leaved pondweed Parnassia palustris Grass-of-Parnassus Potamogeton pectinatus Fennel pondweed Pastinaca sativa Wild parsnip Potamogeton perfoliatus Perfoliate pondweed Pedicularis palustris Marsh lousewort Potamogeton polygonifolius Bog pondweed Pedicularis sylvatica Lousewort Potentilla anglica Trailing tormentil Pentaglottis sempervirens Green alkanet Potentilla anglica x P. reptans & P. e. Hybrid cinquefoils Persicaria amphibia Amphibious bistort Potentilla anserina Silverweed Persicaria hydropiper Water-pepper Potentilla erecta Tormentil Persicaria lapathifolia Pale persicaria Potentilla palustris Marsh cinquefoil Persicaria maculosa Redshank Potentilla reptans Creeping cinquefoil Persicaria minor Small Water-pepper Potentilla sterilis Barren strawberry Petasites fragrans Winter heliotrope Primula veris Cowslip Petasites hybridus Butterbur Primula veris x P. vulgaris Petroselinum crispum Garden parsley Primula vulgaris Primrose Phalaris arundinacea Reed canary-grass Prunella vulgaris Selfheal Phegopteris connectilis Beech fern Prunus avium Wild cherry Phleum bertolonii Smaller cat’s-tail Prunus cerasus Dwarf cherry Phleum pratense Timothy Prunus domestica Wild plum Phragmites australis Common reed Prunus laurocerasus Cherry laurel Phyllitis scolopendrium Hart’s-tongue Prunus padus Bird cherry Picea abies Norway spruce Prunus spinosa Blackthorn Picea sitchensis Sitka spruce Pseudorchis albida Small-white orchid Picris hieracioides Hawkweed oxtongue Pseudotsuga menziesii Douglas fir Pilosella officinarum Mouse-ear-hawkweed Pteridium aquilinum Bracken Pimpinella saxifraga Burnet-saxifrage Pulicaria dysenterica Common fleabane Pinguicula lusitanica Pale vutterwort Pyrola minor Common wintergreen Pinguicula vulgaris Common vutterwort Pyrola rotundifolia Round-leaved wintergreen Pinus contorta Lodgepole pine Quercus petraea Sessile oak Pinus sylvestris Scots pine Quercus petraea x Q. robur Plantago lanceolata Ribwort plantain Quercus robur Pedunculate oak Plantago major Greater plantain Ranunculus acris Meadow buttercup Plantago media Hoary plantain Ranunculus aquatilis Common water-crowfoot Platanthera bifolia Lesser butterfly-orchid Ranunculus auricomus Goldilocks buttercup Platanthera chlorantha Greater butterfly-orchid Ranunculus bulbosus Bulbous buttercup Poa annua Annual meadow-grass Ranunculus circinatus Fan-leaved water-crowfoot Poa compressa Flattened meadow-grass Ranunculus ficaria Lesser celandine Poa humilis Spreading meadow-grass Ranunculus ficaria subsp. bulbilifer Poa nemoralis Wood meadow-grass Ranunculus ficaria subsp. ficaria Poa pratensis Smooth meadow-grass Ranunculus flammula Lesser spearwort Poa trivialis Rough meadow-grass Ranunculus hederaceus Ivy-leaved crowfoot Polygala serpyllifolia Heath milkwort Ranunculus lingua Greater spearwort Polygala vulgaris Common milkwort Ranunculus peltatus Pond water-crowfoot Polygonum arenastrum Equal-leaved knotgrass Ranunculus penicillatus Stream water-crowfoot Polygonum aviculare Knotgrass Ranunculus penicillatus subsp. penicil. Polypodium cambricum Southern polypody Ranunculus repens Creeping buttercup Polypodium interjectum Intermediate polypody Ranunculus sceleratus Celery-leaved buttercup Polypodium vulgare Polypody Ranunculus trichophyllus Thread-leaved water-crowfoot Polystichum aculeatum Hard shield-fern Raphanus raphanistrum subsp.raphanistrum Wild radish Polystichum setiferum Soft shield-fern Reseda lutea Wild mignonette Populus alba White poplar Reseda luteola Weld Populus alba x P. tremula Grey poplar Rhamnus cathartica Buckthorn Populus deltoides x P. nigra Hybrid black-poplar Rhinanthus minor Yellow-rattle Populus nigra subsp. betulifolia Black-poplar Rhododendron ponticum Rhododendron Populus tremula Aspen Rhynchospora alba White beak-sedge Potamogeton alpinus Red pondweed Rhynchospora fusca Brown beak-sedge Potamogeton berchtoldii Small pondweed Ribes nigrum Black currant Potamogeton coloratus Fen pondweed Ribes rubrum Red currant Potamogeton crispus Curled pondweed Ribes sanguineum Flowering currant Potamogeton friesii Flat-stalked pondweed Ribes uva-crispa Gooseberry Potamogeton gramineus Various-leaved pondweed Rorippa amphibia Great yellow-cress Potamogeton gramineus x P. lucens Long-leaved Rorippa amphibia x R. sylvestris Hybrid yellow-cress pondweed Rorippa microphylla Narrow-fruited water-cress Potamogeton gramineus x P. perfoliatus Bright-leaved Rorippa microphylla x R. nasturtium-aq. Hybrid water- Pondweed cress Potamogeton lucens Shining pondweed Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum Water-cress

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Rorippa palustris Marsh yellow-cress Sedum acre Biting stonecrop Rorippa sylvestris Creeping yellow-cress Sedum album White stonecrop Rosa agrestis Small-leaved sweet-briar Sedum rupestre Reflexed stonecrop Rosa arvensis Field-rose Selaginella selaginoides Lesser clubmoss Rosa arvensis x R. canina Sempervivum tectorum House-leek Rosa caesia x R. canina (R. x dumalis) Senecio aquaticus Marsh ragwort Rosa canina Dog-rose Senecio aquaticus x S. jacobaea Rosa canina x R. obtusifolia Senecio jacobaea Common ragwort Rosa canina x R. sherardii Senecio sylvaticus Heath groundsel Rosa canina x R. stylosa Senecio viscosus Sticky groundsel Rosa canina x Rosa tormentosa Senecio vulgaris Groundsel Rosa pimpinellifolia Burnet rose Sesleria caerulea Blue moor-grass Rosa rubiginosa Sweet-briar Setaria viridis Green bristle-grass Rosa sherardii Sherard’s downy-rose Sherardia arvensis Field madder Rosa stylosa Short-styled field-rose Silene dioica Red campion Rosa tomentosa Harsh downy-rose Silene dioica x S. latifolia Rubia peregrina Wild madder Silene latifolia White campion Rubus caesius Dewberry Silene vulgaris Bladder campion Rubus fruticosus Bramble Sinapis alba White mustard Rubus idaeus Raspberry Sinapis arvensis Charlock Rubus saxatilis Stone bramble Sisymbrium altissimum Tall rocket Rumex acetosa Common sorrel Sisymbrium officinale Hedge mustard Rumex acetosella Sheep’s sorrel Sisymbrium orientale Eastern rocket Rumex conglomeratus Clustered dock Sium latifolium Greater water-parsnip Rumex crispus Curled dock Smyrnium olusatrum Alexanders Rumex hydrolapathum Water dock Solanum dulcamara Bittersweet Rumex obtusifolius Broad-leaved dock Solanum nigrum Black nightshade Rumex sanguineus Wood dock Solanum tuberosum Potato Sagina apetala Annual pearlwort Soleirolia soleirolii Mind-your-own-business Sagina apetala subsp. erecta Solidago virgaurea Goldenrod Sagina nodosa Knotted pearlwort Sonchus arvensis Perennial sow-thistle Sagina procumbens Procumbent pearlwort Sonchus asper Prickly sow-thistle Sagittaria sagittifolia Arrowhead Sonchus oleraceus Smooth sow-thistle Salix alba White willow Sorbus aucuparia Rowan Salix aurita Eared willow Sorbus hibernica Irish whitebeam Salix aurita x S. repens Sparganium emersum Unbranched bur-reed Salix caprea Goat willow Sparganium erectum Branched bur-reed Salix caprea x S. cinerea Sparganium natans Least bur-reed Salix caprea x S. viminalis Broad-leaved osier Spergularia rubra Sand spurrey Salix cinerea Grey willow Spiranthes spiralis Autumn lady’s-tresses Salix cinerea subsp. oleifolia Spirodela polyrhiza Greater duckweed Salix fragilis Crack-willow Stachys arvensis Field woundwort Salix pentandra Bay willow Stachys palustris Marsh woundwort Salix purpurea Purple willow Stachys palustris x S. sylvatica Hybrid woundwort Salix repens Creeping willow Stachys sylvatica Hedge woundwort Salix triandra Almond willow Stellaria graminea Lesser stitchwort Salix viminalis Osier Stellaria holostea Greater stitchwort Sambucus ebulus Dwarf elder Stellaria media Common chickweed Sambucus nigra Elder Stellaria palustris Marsh stitchwort Samolus valerandi Brookweed Stellaria uliginosa Bog stitchwort Sanguisorba minor subsp. minor Salad burnet Succisa pratensis Devil’s-bit scabious Sanicula europaea Sanicle Symphoricarpos albus Snowberry Saponaria officinalis Soapwort Symphytum asperum x S. officinale Russian comfrey Sarracenia purpurea Pitcher plant Symphytum officinale Common comfrey Saxifraga hirculus Marsh saxifrage (1866) Syringa vulgaris Lilac Saxifraga spathularis x S. umbrosa Londonpride Tanacetum parthenium Feverfew Saxifraga tridactylites Rue-leaved saxifrage Tanacetum vulgare Tansy Scandix pecten-veneris Shepherd’s-needle Taraxacum agg. Dandelions Scheuchzeria palustris Rannoch-rush (extinct) Taxus baccata Yew Schoenoplectus lacustris Common club-rush Teucrium scorodonia Wood sage Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani Grey club-rush Thalictrum flavum Common meadow-rue Schoenus nigricans Black bog-rush Thlaspi arvense Field penny-cress Scirpus sylvaticus Wood club-rush Thymus polytrichus Wild thyme Scrophularia auriculata Water figwort Tilia cordata x T. platyphyllos Lime Scrophularia nodosa Common figwort Tilia platyphyllos Large-leaved lime Scutellaria galericulata Skullcap Torilis japonica Upright hedge-parsley

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Torilis nodosa Knotted hedge-parsley Veronica arvensis Wall speedwell Tragopogon pratensis Goat’s-beard Veronica beccabunga Brooklime Trichophorum cespitosum Deergrass Veronica catenata Pink water-speedwell Trifolium campestre Hop trefoil Veronica chamaedrys Germander speedwell Trifolium dubium Lesser trefoil Veronica filiformis Slender speedwell Trifolium hybridum Alsike clover Veronica hederifolia Ivy-leaved speedwell Trifolium medium Zigzag clover Veronica montana Wood speedwell Trifolium pratense Red clover Veronica officinalis Heath speedwell Trifolium repens White clover Veronica persica Common field-speedwell Triglochin palustre Marsh arrowgrass Veronica polita Grey field-speedwell Tripleurospermum inodorum Scentless mayweed Veronica scutellata Marsh speedwell Trisetum flavescens Yellow oat-grass Veronica serpyllifolia Thyme-leaved speedwell Triticum aestivum Bread wheat Viburnum lantana Wayfaring-tree Tussilago farfara Colt’s-foot Viburnum opulus Guelder-rose Typha angustifolia Lesser bulrush Vicia cracca Tufted vetch Typha latifolia Bulrush Vicia faba Broad bean Ulex europaeus Gorse Vicia hirsuta Hairy tare Ulex gallii Western gorse Vicia orobus Wood bitter-vetch (1836) Ulmus glabra Wych elm Vicia sativa Common vetch Ulmus minor Ulmus minor Vicia sativa subsp. nigra Ulmus procera English elm Vicia sativa subsp. sativa Umbilicus rupestris Navelwort Vicia sepium Bush vetch Urtica dioica Common nettle Vicia sylvatica Wood vetch Urtica urens Small nettle Vinca major Greater periwinkle Utricularia intermedia Intermediate bladderwort Vinca minor Lesser periwinkle Utricularia minor Lesser bladderwort Viola arvensis Field pansy Utricularia vulgaris Greater bladderwort Viola canina Heath dog-violet Vaccinium myrtillus Bilberry Viola odorata Sweet violet Vaccinium oxycoccos Cranberry Viola palustris Marsh violet Valeriana officinalis Common valerian Viola reichenbachiana Early dog-violet Valerianella carinata Keeled-fruited cornsalad Viola reichenbachiana x V. riviniana Valerianella dentata Narrow-fruited cornsalad Viola riviniana Common Dog-violet Valerianella locusta Common cornsalad Vulpia bromoides Squirreltail fescue Valerianella rimosa Broad-fruited cornsalad Vulpia myuros Rat’s-tail fescue Verbascum thapsus Great mullein Zannichellia palustris Horned pondweed Verbena officinalis Vervain Veronica agrestis Green field-speedwell 1 Compiled by Fiona Devery. Veronica anagallis-aquatica Blue water-speedwell

PLANTS WITHOUT FLOWERS Bryophytes We know a great deal about the distribution of vascu- lar plants (flowering plants, ferns, horsetails and club- mosses: those plants which have sophisticated systems for transporting water and nutrients in solu- tion, and are therefore able to grow large and conspic- uous), but much less about the smaller, non-vascular plants and plant-like organisms. On land the most widespread non-vascular plants are mosses and their less familiar relatives the liverworts, collectively known as bryophytes. With one great exception these plants have little direct influence upon human affairs, so we tend not to notice or pay much attention to them. The exception is the bog-mosses that belong to the genus Sphagnum, which once dominated the great Marchantia polymorpha

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raised bogs of the county and are the main constituent Sphagnum mosses are not as important a con- of moss peat. The leaves of sphagnum mosses have stituent of blanket bog, but in certain situations they an extraordinary water-holding capacity, and this is are very luxuriant and prolific. The area occupied by one of the things that enables them to be the dominant sphagnum mosses in Slieve Bloom has been greatly plants of bogs. reduced by afforestation, but they still thrive on The sphagnum mosses have been greatly affected steeper, unplanted slopes and beside forest tracks. by our activities, especially over the past sixty years or They deserve to be noticed and considered during so, during which the industrial exploitation of the forestry operations, and in the designation and man- raised bogs has been widespread. Most of the large agement of the 15% of forest property set aside for bogs are now nearing the end of their commercial biodiversity value. phase, and many bryophytes are becoming re-estab- lished on the cutaway, including various species of What we know about Offaly’s mosses and Sphagnum. We should make every effort to support liverworts this modest recovery of lost territory. Although the great botanical explorer Lloyd Praeger described Slieve Bloom as ‘very poor in mountain plants’, the glens that radiate from their heart are very rich in mosses and liverworts, but still relatively un- known. A tiny hawthorn twig plucked late one after- noon in January 2006 of the glens – almost at random, because a liverwort on it looked interesting, but it was too dark to see clearly! – turned out to have three rare bryophytes never seen in Laois before (unfortunately this was in Gorteenameale, a stone’s throw over the border!): the liverworts Metzgeria fruticulosa and Colura calyptrifolia, and the moss Daltonia splachnoides. In spite of the limited amount of work that has been carried out we do have an impressive county list for Offaly, numbering 718 species so far: but much work remains to be done on these wonderful plants. Sphagnum moss

The bryophytes of Offaly1

Liverworts Gymnocolea inflata Odontoschisma denudatum Aneura pinguis Kurzia pauciflora Odontoschisma sphagni Blasia pusilla Leiocolea badensis Pellia endivifolia Calypogeia arguta Lejeunea cavifolia Pellia epiphylla Calypogeia fissa Lepidozia reptans Plagiochila asplenioides Calypogeia muelleriana Lophocolea bidentata Plagiochila porelloides Cephalozia bicuspidata Lophozia incisa Pleurozia purpurea Cephalozia catenulata Lophozia ventricosa Porella obtusata Cephalozia connivens Lunularia cruciata Porella platyphylla Cephalozia lunulifolia Marchantia polymorpha Preissia quadrata Cephaloziella hampeana Metzgeria conjugata Radula complanata Chiloscyphus polyanthos Metzgeria fruticulosa Riccardia latifrons Cladopodiella fluitans Metzgeria furcata Riccardia multifida Cololejeunea minutissima Microlejeunea ulicina Riccardia palmata Conocephalum conicum Moerckia hibernica Saccogyna viticulosa Diplophyllum albicans Mylia anomala Scapania aspera Frullania dilatata Mylia taylorii Scapania gracilis Frullania tamarisci Nardia scalaris Trichocolea tomentalla Frullania teneriffae Nowellia curvifolia

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Mosses Palustriella commutata Curled hook-moss Aloina aloides Common aloe-moss Philonotis calcarea Thick-nerved apple-moss Anomodon viticulosus Rambling tail-moss Physcomitrium pyriforme Common bladder-moss Atrichum undulatum Common smoothcap Plagiomnium elatum Tall thyme-moss Aulacomnium androgynum Bud-headed groove-moss Plagiomnium rostratum Long-beaked thyme-moss Aulacomnium palustre Bog groove-moss Plagiomnium undulatum Hart’s-tongue thyme-moss Barbula convoluta Lesser Bird’s-claw beard-moss Pohlia melanodon Pink-fruited thread-moss Bryum algovicum Drooping thread-moss Pohlia nutans Nodding thread-moss Bryum argenteum Silver-moss Pohlia wahlenbergii Pale glaucous thread-moss Bryum bicolor Bicoloured bryum Polytrichum commune Common haircap Bryum capillare Capillary thread-moss Polytrichum formosum Bank haircap Bryum klinggraeffii Raspberry bryum Polytrichum juniperinum Juniper haircap Bryum pallens Pale thread-moss Polytrichum longisetum Slender haircap Bryum pseudotriquetrum Marsh bryum Polytrichum strictum Strict haircap Bryum rubens Crimson-tuber thread-moss Racomitrium aquaticum Narrow-leaved fringe-moss Bryum ruderale Pea bryum Racomitrium ericoides Dense fringe-moss Bryum uliginosum Cernuous thread-moss Racomitrium lanuginosum Woolly fringe-moss Bryum violaceum Pill bryum Rhizomnium punctatum Dotted thyme-moss Campylopus fragilis Brittle swan-neck moss Rhodobryum roseum Rose-moss Campylopus introflexus Heath star moss Schistidium apocarpum agg. Campylopus pyriformis Dwarf swan-neck moss Schistidium crassipilum Thickpoint grimmia Ceratodon purpureus Redshank Schistidium strictum Upright Brown grimmia Climacium dendroides Tree-moss Seligeria pusilla Dwarf rock-bristle Cratoneuron filicinum Fern-leaved hook-moss Sphagnum austinii Austin’s bog-moss Cryphaea heteromalla Lateral cryphaea Sphagnum capillifolium Red bog-moss Dichodontium pellucidum Transparent fork-moss Sphagnum cuspidatum Feathery bog-moss Dicranella cerviculata Red-neck forklet-moss Sphagnum denticulatum Cow-horn bog-moss Dicranella palustris Marsh forklet-moss Sphagnum fallax Flat-topped bog-moss Dicranella schreberiana Schreber’s forklet-moss Sphagnum fimbriatum Fringed bog-moss Dicranella staphylina Field forklet-moss Sphagnum fuscum Rusty bog-moss Dicranella varia Variable forklet-moss Sphagnum inundatum Lesser Cow-horn bog-moss Dicranum bergeri (only Irish record: Pollagh bog 1957). Sphagnum palustre Blunt-leaved bog-moss Waved Fork-moss Sphagnum papillosum Papillose bog-moss Dicranum bonjeani Crisped fork-moss Sphagnum squarrosum Spiky bog-moss Dicranum scoparium Broom fork-moss Sphagnum subnitens Lustrous bog-moss Didymodon acutus Pointed beard-moss Sphagnum subsecundum Slender cow-horn bog-moss Didymodon fallax Fallacious beard-moss Sphagnum tenellum Soft bog-moss Didymodon insulanus Cylindric beard-moss Syntrichia intermedia Intermediate screw-moss Didymodon rigidulus Rigid beard-moss Syntrichia laevipila Small hairy screw-moss Didymodon vinealis Soft-tufted beard-moss Syntrichia papillosa Marble screw-moss Ditrichum gracile Slender ditrichum Syntrichia ruralis Great hairy screw-moss Encalyptra vulgaris Common extinguisher-moss Tetraphis pellucida Pellucid four-tooth moss Tetraplodon angustatus (only Irish record) Narrow cruet- Ephemerum serratum (/minutissimum) Serrated (Minute) moss (protected by law) earth-moss Thamnobryum alopecurum Fox-tail feather-moss Eucladium verticillatum Whorled tufa-moss Thuidium delicatulum Delicate tamarisk-moss Fissidens adianthoides Maidenhair pocket-moss Thuidium tamariscinum Common tamarisk-moss Fissidens dubius Rock pocket-moss Tortella tortuosa Frizzled crisp-moss Fissidens incurvus Short-leaved pocket-moss Tortula acaulon Cuspidate earth-moss Fissidens osmundoides Purple-stalked pocket- moss Tortula modica Blunt-fruited pottia Fissidens taxifolius Common pocket-moss Tortula muralis Wall screw-moss Fissidens viridulus Green pocket-moss Trichostomum crispulum Curly crisp-moss Fontinalis antipyretica Greater water-moss Ulota bruchii Bruch’s pincushion Funaria hygrometrica Common cord-moss Ulota calvescens Balding pincushion Grimmia pulvinata Grey-cushioned grimmia Ulota crispa Crisped pincushion Grimmia trichophylla Hair-pointed grimmia Weissia condensa Curly beardless-moss Homalia trichomanoides Blunt feather-moss Weissia controversa Green-tufted stubble-moss Leptobryum pyriforme Golden thread-moss Zygodon conoideus Lesser yoke-moss Leucobryum glaucum Leucodon sciuroides Squirrel-tail moss Mnium hornum Swan’s-neck thyme-moss 1 Neckera crispa Crisped neckera Extracted from The Distribution of Bryophytes in Ireland Neckera pumila Dwarf neckera (2003), compiled by D.T. Holyoak (Broadleaf Books). Orthotrichum anomalum Anomalous bristle-moss Orthotrichum diaphanum White-tipped bristle-moss Orthotrichum lyellii Lyell’s bristle-moss

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Algae and others KINGDOM FUNGI The term algae encompasses a diverse assemblage of phyla, the most familiar of which are the various sea- Fungi are everywhere, but we usually only notice weeds and the green ‘stuff’ often seen in stagnant them when they produce their spore-producing fruit ponds and ditches. Many others comprise predomi- bodies (sporocarps). They play enormously important nantly single-celled organisms, and as with every roles in the economy of nature. Without the work of other group of such creatures their small size should the saprobic fungi that break down the tissues of dead not blind us to their great complexity and variety. plants nutrient recycling would come to an end and Even the most widespread and abundant kinds are everything would simply pile up. A number of fungi hardly ever noticed. These include a number of cause diseases, especially of plants, including many species of green thread algae (phylum Chlorophyta) cultivated plants. such as the Spirogyra found in bog pools and old drains throughout the county. They are not much to look at with the unaided eye: Spirogyra is like a slimy mass of very fine hair, but under the microscope algae are plants of great beauty: for plants is what they are, and indeed the ancestors of all other plants lie some- where among the green algae of the Palaeozoic earth. Bread Cladophora is one type of green alga that has become moulds much more abundant as a result of the eutrophication of surface waters that has been a feature of the last half century. It will be no surprise to learn that apart from casual observations, and occasional lists from a few habitats, we know virtually nothing about the status of algae in Offaly. Here is yet another universe of life awaiting exploration. Fungi are assigned to a separate kingdom, and comprise three phyla. Zygomycota are mould-like fungi, with some 1,100 described species. The Basid- iomycota, of which there are 22,500 described species include mushrooms and toadstools, puffballs, jelly fungi and stinkhorns, as well as rusts and smuts. Many of the basidiomycetes form mutually beneficial associations with plants (ectomycorrhiza) which are vi- tally important to their nutrient economy. The As- comycota comprise 30,000 species, of which some 13,500 are lichens (see below). The list of fungi recorded for Offaly is surprisingly long. One reason for this is that in September 1989 the British Mycological Society held its annual Autumn Foray in the midlands, and visited several sites in the county. This shows just how much re- mains to be found once we start to look carefully – and this is as true of most other groups of plants and animals as it is of fungi. Sarcoscypha austriaca - Scarlet elf cup Different species of green algae

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The Fungi Of Offaly1 Kingdom Fungi (Mycota) Entoloma pallens Entoloma porphyrophaeum Lilac pinkgill Phylum Basidiomycota Entoloma rhodopolium Wood pinkgill Basidiomycetes: Agaricales Entoloma sericellum Cream pinkgill Agaricus augustus The prince Entoloma sericeum Silky pinkgill Agaricus campestris Field mushroom Entoloma serrulatum Blue edge pinkgill Agaricus fuscofibrillosus Entoloma sinuatum Livid pinkgill Agaricus langei Scaly wood mushroom Flammulina velutipes Velvet shank Agaricus silvaticus Blushing wood mushroom Hemimycena cucullata Agaricus silvicola Wood mushroom Hemimycena tortuosa Dewdrop bonnet Agaricus urinascens var. excellens Macro mushroom Hygrocybe cantharellus Goblet waxcap Amanita ceciliae Snakeskin grisette Hygrocybe chlorophana Golden waxcap Amanita crocea Orange grisette Hygrocybe coccinea Scarlet waxcap Aminita fulva Tawny grisette Hygrocybe colemanniana Toasted waxcap Amanita muscaria Fly agaric Hygrocybe conica Blackening waxcap Amanita pantherina Panthercap Hygrocybe insipida Spangle waxcap Amanita phalloides Deathcap Hygrocybe intermedia Fibrous waxcap Amanita rubescens Blusher Hygrocybe miniata Vermilion waxcap Amanita strobiliformis Warted amanita Hygrocybe mucronella Bitter waxcap Armillaria gallica Bulbous honey fungus Hygrocybe nitrata Nitrous waxcap Armillaria mellea Honey fungus Hygrocybe persistens Persistent waxcap Arrhenia onisca Hygrocybe psittacina Parrot waxcap Arrhenia retiruga Hygrocybe quieta Oily waxcap Arrhenia rustica Hygrocybe virginea var. fuscescens Snowy waxcap Arrhenia sphagnicola Hygrocybe virginea var. ochraceopallida Snowy waxcap Bolbitius titubans Hygrocybe virginea Snowy waxcap Calocybe carnea Hypholoma elongatum Sphagnum brownie Pink Domecap Hypholoma fasciculare Sulphur tuft Clitocybe gibba Common funnel Hypholoma marginatum Snakeskin brownie Clitocybe odora Aniseed funnel Hypholoma myosotis Olive brownie Clitopilus prunulus The miller Hypholoma udum Peat brownie Collybia butyracea Butter cap Kuehneromyces mutabilis Sheated woodtuft Collybia confluens Clustered toughshank Laccaria amethystina Amethyst deceiver Collybia distorta Laccaria bicolor Bicoloured deceiver Collybia dryophila Russet toughshank Laccaria laccata Deceiver Collybia erythropus Redleg toughshank Laccaria proxima Scurfy deceiver Collybia fusipes Spindle toughshank Lachnella villosa Collybia maculata Spotted toughshank Lacrymaria lacrymabunda Weeping widow Collybia peronata Wood woolyfoot Lacrymaria pyrotricha Collybia racemosa Branched shanklet Lepiota boudieri Girdled dapperling Conocybe apala Lepiota castanea Chestnut dappereling Conocybe subovalis Lepiota cristata Stinking dapperling Conocybe vexans Lepista sordida Coprinus acuminatus Humpback inkcap Lichenomphalia hudsoniana Coprinus atramentarius Common inkcap Lichenomphalia umbellifera Coprinus comatus Shaggy inkcap Limacella guttata Coprinus disseminatus Fairy inkcap Lyophyllum decastes Clustered domecap Coprinus heptemerus Macrocystidia cucumis Cucumber cap Coprinus hiascens Macrolepiota procera Parasol Coprinus lagopus Hare’s Foot inkcap Macrolepiota rhacodes Shaggy parasol Coprinus micaceus Glistening inkcap Marasmiellus ramealis Twig parachute Coprinus narcoticus Marasmius androsaceus Horsehair parachute Coprinus subdisseminatus Marasmius cohaerens Cystoderma amianthinum Earthy powdercap Marasmius epiphylloides Cystoderma jasonis Marasmius rotula Collared parachute Cystolepiota bucknallii Lilac dapperling Megacollybia platyphylla Whitelaced shank Cystolepiota seminuda Melanoleuca melaleuca Entoloma chalybaeum var. lazulinum Indigo pinkgill Melanoleuca polioleuca Common cavalier Entoloma conferendum Star pinkgill Melanoleuca strictipes Entoloma corvinum Melanotus phillipsii Entoloma elodes Mycena acicula Orange bonnet Entoloma formosum Mycena adonis Scarlet bonnet Entoloma fuscomarginatum Mycena adscendens Frosty bonnet Entoloma incanum Mousepee pinkgill Mycena aetites Drab bonnet Entoloma longistriatum var. sarcitulum Mycena amicta Entoloma nausiosme Mycena arcangeliana Angel’s bonnet

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Mycena bulbosa Suillus granulatus Weeping bolete Mycena filopes Iodine bonnet Suillus grevillei Larch bolete Mycena galericulata Common bonnet Suillus variegatus Velvet bolete Mycena galopus Milking bonnet Suillus viscidus Sticky bolete Mycena galopus var. nigra Black milking bonnet Mycena haematopus Burgandydrop bonnet Basidiomycetes: Cantharellales Mycena inclinata Clustered bonnet Botryobasidium aureum Mycena megaspora Botryobasidium conspersum Mycena olida Rancid bonnet Cantharellus cibarius Chanterelle Mycena polygramma Grooved bonnet Clavaria argillacea Moor club Mycena pura Lilac bonnet Clavaria fragilis White spindles Mycena sanguinolenta Bleeding bonnet Clavaria fumosa Smoky spindles Mycena speirea Bark bonnet Clavulina cinerea Grey coral Mycena vitilis Snapping bonnet Clavulina coralloides Crested coral Mycenella bryophila/margaritispora Clavulina rugosa Wrinkled club Oudemansiella mucida Porcelain fungus Clavulinopsis corniculata Meadow coral Panaeolus acuminatus Dewdrop mottlegill Clavulinopsis helvola Yellow club Panaeolus semiovatus Egghead mottlegill Clavulinopsis luteoalba Apricot club Pholiota flammans Flaming scalycap Clavulinopsis subtilis Pholiota squarrosa Shaggy scalycap Hydnum repandum Wood hedgehog Pleurocybella porrigens Angel’s wings Sparassis crispa Wood cauliflower Pluteus atromarginatus Basidiomycetes: Cortinariales Pluteus cervinus Deer shield Cortinarius anomalus Variable webcap Pluteus cinereofuscus Cortinarius betuletorum Pluteus ephebeus Cortinarius croceus Pluteus romellii Goldleaf shield Cortinarius flexipes var. flabellus Pelargonium webcap Pluteus salicinus Willow shield Cortinarius helvelloides Pluteus umbrosus Velvet shield Cortinarius hinnuleus Earthy webcap Psathyrella candolleana Pale brittlestem Cortinarius malicorius Psathyrella conopilus Conical brittlestem Cortinarius semisanguineus Surprise webcap Psathyrella corrugis Red Edge brittlestem Cortinarius turmalis (?) Psathyrella piluliformis Common stump brittlestem Cortinarius variicolor Psathyrella pseudogracilis Cortinarius violaceus Violet webcap Psathyrella spadicea Chestnut brittlestem Crepidotus applanatus Flat oysterling Psathyrella spadiceogrisea Spring brittlestem Crepidotus mollis Peeling oysterling Psathyrella sphagnicola Galerina calyptrata Psilocybe crobula Galerina hypnorum Psilocybe semilanceata Magic mushroom/ liberty cap Galerina marginata Funeral bell Rickenella fibula Orange mosscap Galerina tibiicystis Stropharia caerulea Blue roundhead Galerina vittiformis Stropharia semiglobata Dung roundhead Gymnopilus fulgens Tricholoma album White knight Gymnopilus junonius Spectacular rustgill Tricholoma fulvum Birch knight Hebeloma crustuliniforme poisonpie Tricholoma imbricatum Matt knight Hebeloma leucosarx Tricholoma lascivum Aromatic knight Hebeloma sacchariolens Sweet poisonpie Tricholoma sulphureum Sulphur knight Hebeloma sinapizans Bitter poisonpie Tricholomopsis rutilans Plums and custard Hebeloma theobrominum Xerula pudens Inocybe adaequata Xerula radicata Rooting shank Inocybe asterospora Star fibrecap Basidiomycetes: Auriculariales Inocybe cincinnata var. major Collared fibrecap Auricularia auricula-judae Jelly ear Inocybe fraudans Inocybe fuscidula Basidiomycetes: Boletales Inocybe geophylla White fibrecap Boletus badius Bay bolete Inocybe geophylla var. lilacina Lilac fibrecap Boletus chrysenteron Red cracking bolete Inocybe godeyi Boletus edulis Penny bun/cep Inocybe hirtella Boletus luridiformis Inocybe maculata Frosty fibrecap Boletus pruinatus Matt bolete Inocybe mixtilis Boletus rubellus Ruby bolete Inocybe napipes Bulbous fibrecap Boletus subtomentosus Suede bolete Inocybe rimosa Split fibrecap Chalciporus piperatus Peppery bolete Naucoria escharioides Chroogomphus rutilus Copper spike Naucoria subconspersa Gomphidius maculatus Tubaria conspersa Felted twiglet Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca False chanterelle Tubaria furfuracea Scurfy twiglet Leccinum duriusculum Slate bolete Leccinum rigidipes Basidiomycetes: Dacrymycetales Leccinum scabrum Brown birch bolete Calocera cornea Small stagshorn Leccinum variicolor Mottled bolete Calocera furcata Paxillus involutus Brown rimroll Calocera viscosa Yellow stagshorn

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Dacrymyces capitatus Lactarius scoticus Dacrymyces stillatus Common jellyspot Lactarius subdulcis Mild milkcap Lactarius tabidus Birch milkcap Basidiomycetes: Exobasidiales Lactarius torminosus Wooly milkcap Exobasidium karstenii Lactarius turpis Ugly milkcap Exobasidium oxycocci Lactarius uvidus Basidiomycetes: Fistulinales Russula albonigra Fistulina hepatica Beefsteak fungus Russula atropurpurea Purple brittlegill Russula betularum Birch brittlegill Basidiomycetes: Ganodermatales Russula caerulea Humpback brittlegill Ganoderma applanatum Artist’s bracket Russula chloroides Blue band brittlegill Ganoderma australe Southern bracket Russula claroflava Yellow swamp brittlegill Russula cyanoxantha Charcoal burner Basidiomycetes: Hericiales Russula delica Milk white brittlegill Gloiothele lactescens Russula densifolia Crowded brittlegill Lentinellus cochleatus Aniseed cockleshell Russula exalbicans Bleached brittlegill Basidiomycetes: Hymenochaetales Russula fellea Geranium brittlegill Hymenochaete corrugata Glue crust Russula foetens Stinking brittlegill Hymenochaete rubiginosa Oak curtain rust Russula fragilis Fragile brittlegill Inonotus dryadeus Oak bracket Russula ionochlora Oilslick brittlegill Russula nigricans Blackening brittlegill Basidiomycetes: Lycoperdales Russula nitida Purple Swamp brittlegill Calvatia gigantea Giant puffball Russula nobilis Beechwood sickener Handkea excipuliformis Pestle puffball Russula ochroleuca Ochre brittlegill Lycoperdon nigrescens Dusky puffball Russula queletii Fruity Brittlegill Lycoperdon perlatum Common puffball Russula sanguinaria Bloody brittlegill Lycoperdon pyriforme Stump puffball Russula sardonia Primrose brittlegill Vascellum pratense Meadow puffball Russula xerampelina Crab brittlegill

Basidiomycetes: Nidulariales Basidiomycetes: Schizophyllales Crucibulum laeve Common bird’s nest Schizophyllum commune Split-gill/Common porecrust

Basidiomycetes: Phallales Basidiomycetes: Sclerodematales Geastrum triplex Collared earthstar Scleroderma areolatum Leopard earthball Gomphus clavatus Pig’s ear Scleroderma bovista Potato earthball Mutinus caninus Dog stinkhorn Scleroderma citrinum Common earthball Phallus impudicus Stinkhorn Scleroderma verrucosum Scaly earthball

Basidiomycetes: Poriales Basidiomycetes: Steareales Abortiporus biennis Blushing rosette Athelia epiphylla Bjerkandera adusta Smoky bracket Chondrostereum purpureum Silverleaf fungus Ceriporia reticulata Hyphoderma argillaceum Datronia mollis Common mazegill Hyphodontia crustosa Grifola frondosa Hen of the woods Hyphodontia sambuci Elder whitewash Heterobasidion annosum Root rot Laetisaria fuciformis Laetiporus sulphureus Chicken of the woods Mycoacia uda Meripilus giganteus Giant polypore Peniophora lycii Physisporinus sanguinolentus Bleeding porecrust Schizopora paradoxa Split porecrust Piptoporus betulinus Birch Polypore/razorstrop fungus Steccherinum fimbriatum Polyporus leptocephalus Blackfoot polypore Steccherinum ochraceum Polyporus squamosus Dryad’s saddle Stereum hirsutum Hairy curtain crust Postia subcaesia Blueing bracket Stereum rugosum Bleeding broadleaf crust Postia tephroleuca Greyling bracket Subulicystidium longisporum Pleurotus ostreatus Oyster mushroom Tubulicrinis regificus Skeletocutis nivea Hazel bracket Tylospora fibrillosa Trametes versicolor Turkeytail oyster mushroom Basidiomycetes: Thelephorales Basidiomycetes: Russulales Hydnellum ferrugineum Mealy tooth Lactarius acerrimus Thelephora terrestris Earthfan Lactarius acris Tomentella bryophila Lactarius aurantiacus Orange milkcap Tomentella lapidum Lactarius blennius Beech milkcap Lactarius camphoratus Curry milkcap Basidiomycetes: Tremellales Lactarius deterrimus False Saffron milkcap Eichleriella deglubens Lactarius fulvissimus Tawny milkcap Exidia glandulosa Witch’s butter Lactarius glyciosmus Coconut milkcap Exidia nucleata Crystal brain Lactarius helvus Fenugreek milkcap Exidia thuretiana White brain Lactarius pallidus Pale milkcap Sebacina epigaea lactarius pterosporus Stypella crystallina Lactarius quietus Oakbug milkcap Stypella subhyalina Lactarius rufus Rufous milkcap Tremella mesenterica Yellow brain

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Urediniomycetes: Uredinales Rusts Euascomycetes: Dothidiales Coleosporium tussilaginis on Euphrasia, Petasites & Bactrodesmium obovatum Tussilago Dothiorella candollei Cumminsiella mirabilissima on Mahonia Leptospora rubella Kuehneola uredinis on Rubus Melampsora caprearum on Salix Euascomycetes: Erysiphales Powdery Mildews Melampsora epitea on Salix Erysiphe alphitoides on Quercus Melampsora euphorbiae on Euphorbia Erysiphe aquilegiae on Aquilegia Melampsora hypericorum on Hypericum Erysiphe berberidis on Mahonia Melampsoridium betulinum on Betula Erysiphe biocellata on Mentha Milesina scolopendrii on Phyllitis Erysiphe circaeae on Circaea Miyagia pseudosphaeria on Sonchus Erysiphe cruciferarum on Sisymbrium Phragmidium bulbosum on Rubus Erysiphe depressa on Arctium Phragmidium fragariae on Potentilla Erysiphe heraclei on Heracleum Phragmidium mucronatum on Rosa Erysiphe hyperici on Hypericum Phragmidium rosae-pimpinellifoliae on Burnet rose Erysiphe knautiae on Succisa Phragmidium rubi-idaei on Rubus idaeus Erysiphe lythri on Lythrum Phragmidium violaceum on Rubus Erysiphe pisi on Vicia Puccinia acetosae on Rumex Erysiphe sordida on Plantago Puccinia brachypodii on Brachypodium Erysiphe trifolii on Trifolium Puccinia buxi on Buxus Golovinomyces cichoracearum va. chicoracearum Puccinia calcitrapae on Cirsium on Compositae Puccinia caricina on Carex Golovinomyces cichoracearum var. fischeri on Senecio Puccinia caricina var. ribesii-pendulae on Carex Puccinia circaeae on Circaea Neoerysiphe galeopsidis on Stachys Puccinia coronata on Festuca & Holcus Phyllactinia fraxini on Fraxinus Puccinia glechomatis on Glechoma Phyllactinia guttata on Corylus Puccinia graminis subsp. Graminis on Festuca Podosphaera myrtillina on Vaccinium Puccinia lagenophorae on Senecio Podosphaera aphanis on Potentilla & Geum Puccinia lapsanae on Lapsana Podosphaera fusca on Taraxacum & Senecio Puccinia magnusiana on Phragmites Podosphaera pannosa on Rosa Puccinia malvacearum on Malva Sawadaea bicornis on Acer Puccinia menthae on Menta Sphaerotheca epilobii on Epilobium Puccinia obscura on Bellis & Luzula Puccinia phragmitis on Phragmites Euascomycetes: Eurotiales Puccinia poarum on Tussilago Paecilomyces farinosus Puccinia punctata on Galium Ascomycota; Halosphaeriales Puccinia punctiformis on Cirsium Clavariopsis aquatica Puccinia recondita on Elytrigia Puccinia urticata var. urticae-inflatae on Carex Euascomycetes: Helotiales Puccinia veronicae on Veronica Bisporella citrina Lemon disco Puccinia violae on Viola Bisporella sulfurina Triphragmium ulmariae on Filipendula Botrytis cinerea Grey mould Uromyces dactylidis on Rannunculus Chlorociboria aeruginascens Green elfcup Uromyces rumicis on Rumex Claussenomyces prasinulus Uromyces valerianae on Valeriana Crocicreas cyathoideum Uromyces viciae-fabae on Vicia Diplocarpon earlianum Ustilaginomycetes: Ustilaginales Geoglossum cookeanum Earth tongue Ustilago filiformis on Glyceria Heterosphaeria patella Ustilago grandis on Phragmites Hymenoscyphus albidus Ustilago striiformis on Phalaris Hymenoscyphus fructigenus Nut disco Hymenoscyphus imberbis Kingdom Fungi (Mycota) Hymenoscyphus scutula Hymenoscyphus splendens Phylum Ascomycota Lachnum apalum Rush disco Archaeascomycete: Taphrinales Lachnum ciliare Protomyces macrosporus Lachnum clavisporum Taphrina tosquinetii Lachnum corticale Euascomycetes: Boliniales Lachnum diminutum Endoxyla cirrhosa Lachnum dumorum Euascomycetes: Calosphaeriales Lachnum virgineum Snowy disco Calosphaeria Laetinaevia carneoflavida Euascomycetes: Capnodiales Leptotrochila ranunculi Tripospermum myrti Moellerodiscus tenuistipes Euascomycetes: Diaporthales Mollisia cinerea Common Grey disco Diaporthe arctii Mollisia juncina Phomopsis stictica Mollisina rubi Sydowiella fenestrans Myriosclerotinia

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Neobulgaria pura Beech jellydisc Stomiopeltis pinastri Pezizella albosanguinea Tetracladium marchalianum Phacidium multivalve Tetracladium setigerum Phialina lachnobrachya Torula herbarum Phialina ulmariae Tridentaria carnivora Polydesmia pruinosa Triposporium elegans Psilalachnum inquilinum Triscelophorus monosporus Pyrenopeziza escharodes Tuberculina persicina Pyrenopeziza revincta Wiesneriomyces laurinus Rutstroemia firma Brown cup Xylohypha nigrescens Rutstroemia petiolorum Rutstroemia sydowiana Oakleaf cup Euascomycetes: Meliolales Strossmayeria atriseda Appendiculella calostroma Tapesia fusca Tapesia lividofusca Euascomycetes: Microascales Tapesia yallundae Cephalotrichum microsporum Trichoglossum hirsutum Hairy earthtongue Euascomycetes: Microthyriales Tricladium angulatum Lichenopeltella pnophylla Trochila craterium Microthyrium macrosporum Trochila ilicina Holly Speckle Microthyrium microscopicum Trochila laurocerasi Microthyrium pinophyllum Euascomycetes: Hypocreales Microthyrium versicolor Byssostilbe stilbigera Euascomycetes: Mycosphaerellales Claviceps purpurea Ergot Cladosporium macrocarpum Erostrotheca multiformis Ramularia bistorte Hyalopeziza millepunctata Ramularia circaeae Hypocrea schweinitzii Ramularia didyma Hypomyces chrysospermus Bolete mould Ramularia glechomatis Hypomyces lateritius Ramularia lactea Nectria cinnebarina Coral spot Ramularia lapsanae Nectria desmazieri Ramularia rhabdospora Nectria episphaeria Ramularia scrophulariae Nectria hederae Ramularia sphaeroidea Nectria leptosphaeriae Ramularia taraxaci Nectria lugdunensis Mycosphaerella tulasnei Nectria peziza Septoria convolvuli Pseudonectria rousseliana Septoria stachydis Pycnofusarium rusci Euascomycetes: Ophiostomatales Euascomycetes: Hysteriales Ophiostoma novo-ulmi Dutch elm disease Hysterium angustatum Ophiostoma ulmi Dutch elm disease Hysterographium fraxini Euascomycetes: Pezizales Euascomycetes: Incertae sedis Aleuria aurantia Orange peel fungus Alatospora acuminata Cheilymenia fimicola Anguillospora crassa Coprobia granulata Arthrobotrys sp. Helvella crispa White saddle Bactridium flavum Helvella elastica Elastic saddle Campylospora chaetocladia Helvella macropus Felt saddle Campylospora tetracladia Melastiza chateri Orange cup Coleophoma empetri Miladina lecithina Dendrospora erecta Otidea alutacea Tan ear Dictyosporium toruloides Peziza badia Bay cup Flabellospora acuminata Peziza micropus Flagellospora curvula Peziza repanda Palamino cup Haplariopsis fagicola Scutellinia crinita Lemonniera aquatica Euascomycetes: Phyllachorales Lunulospora curvula Colletotrichum trichellum Mycocentrospora acerina Phyllachora dactylidis Orbilia curvatispora Phyllachora junci Orbilia euonymi Orbilia leucostigma Euascomycetes: Pleosporales Orbilia xanthostigma Common glasscup Coleroa robertiani Periconia cookei Dendryphion comosum Sesquicillium buxi Hendersonia innumerosa Stachybotrys dichroa Leptosphaeria acuta Nettle rash

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Leptosphaeria doliolum Fungus-like Organisms Leptosphaeria libanotis Kingdom: Straminipila Lophiostoma compressum Lophiostoma semiliberum Phylum Oomycota Lophiostoma vagabundum Massarina aquatica Oomycetes: Peronosporales Massarina tetraploa Albugo candida White blister Melanomma pulvis-pyrius Albugo tragopogonis Downy mildew Paraphaeosphaeria glaucopunctata Peronospora aparines Downy mildew Paraphaeosphaeria vectis Peronospora oerteliana Downy mildew Phoma hedericola Peronospora parasitica Downy mildew Rhopographus filicinus Bracken map Oomycetes: Pythiales Sporormiella bipartis Phytophthora infestans Potato blight Tubeufia cerea Kingdom: Uncertain Affinity Euascomycetes: Rhytismatales Phylum Myxomycota (Slime Moulds) Hypoderma rubi Lophodermium apiculatum Myxomycota: Liceales Lophodermium piceae Cribraria argillacea Rhytisma acerinum Sycamore tar spot Cribraria aurantiaca Rhytisma andromedae Cribraria cancellata var. cancellata Rhytisma salicinum Licea clarkii Lycogala epidendrum Euascomycetes: Sordariales Lycogala exiguum Bertia moriformis Wood mulberry Tuberifera ferruginosa Coniochaeta ligniaria Dictyochaeta simplex Myxomycota: Physarales Endophragmiella pinicola Badhamia lilacina var. lilacina Lasiosphaeria hirsuta Badhamia panicea Melanopsammella vermicularioides Diderma deplanatum Podospora appendiculata Diderma simplex Sporoschisma juvenile Didymium difforme Didymium squamulosum Euascomycetes: Trichosphaeriales Fuligo septica var. septica Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma Leocarpus fragilis Euascomycetes: Xylariales Physarum cinereum Anthostomella appendiculosa Physarum nutans Anthostomella punctulata Physarum pusillum Anthostomella tomicoides Myxomycota: Protosteliales Cainia graminis Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var. fruticulosa Daldinia concentrica Cramp balls Diatrype disciformis Beech barkspot Myxomycota: Stemonitales Discostroma tostum Collaria arcyrionema Eutypa flavovirens Comatricha nigra Eutypa spinosa Comatricha tenerrima Hypoxylon fragiforme Beech woodwart Lamproderma scintillans Hypoxylon fuscum Hazel woodwart Macbrideola cornea Hypoxylon intermedium Stemonitis fusca var. fusca Hypoxylon multiforme Birch woodwart Stemonitopsis typhina Kretzschmaria deusta Brittle cinder Myxomycota: Trichiales Melomastia mastoidea Arcyria denudata Phomatospora dinemasporium Arcyria incarnata Rosellinia aquila Calomyxa metallica Xylaria hypoxylon Candlesnuff fungus Perichaena chrysosperma Xylaria longipes Dead Moll’s fingers Trichia affinis Xylaria polymorpha Dead man’s fingers Trichia botrytis var. botrytis Kingdom Fungi (Mycota) Trichia decipiens var. decipiens Phylum Zygomycota Trichia varia Zygomycetes: Mucorales Spinellus fusiger Bonnet mould 1 Contributed by Hubert Fuller, School of Biology and Environmental Science, UCD.

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Lichens because they are extraordinarily sensitive in this re- Most people will have noticed the bushy grey out- gard. This sensitivity varies greatly from species to growths that often festoon the branches of trees, most species, which makes the group as a whole ideal for conspicuously perhaps in old orchards. These are assessing the level of pollution. lichens, dual organisms that consist of an association Lichens are a very diverse group. A mature oak tree between an alga and a fungus so extraordinarily inti- may have as many as several dozen species, and there mate that the result is an organism totally different in could be as many again on an old gravestone. 1285 appearance from either of the constituent partners on species have been recorded from the whole of Ireland. their own. In point of fact though, only the algal part- We have a reasonably accurate list of the species that ner is capable of independent existence: for the fungi occur in Offaly, but our knowledge of their detailed involved in the partnership the association has be- distribution is limited and there is plenty of scope for come obligatory. detailed studies. Of particular interest from the con- Bushy (fruticose) lichens are the most familiar type. servation viewpoint are those lichens characteristic of Other lichens are irregular, frilly plates, rather like cer- old woodland, and especially the lungworts (Lobaria tain seaweeds or leafy liverworts; such thallose lichens species), known from only a handful of locations in are particularly common on tree bark and rock in un- the county. A lichen survey of the towns of Offaly polluted districts. Many kinds of lichens live in the would be an ideal way to draw attention to the variety surface tissue of trees or the outer skin of rock; these and importance of the group, as well as highlighting are crustose lichens. Certain kinds (especially Cladonia issues of air quality. species) have fruiting structures (podetia) that look like miniature clubs or golf tees. In the old days vari- ous lichens were used for making dyes, but their main practical interest today is for monitoring air pollution,

Caloplaca

Three common lichens: Cladonia, Caloplaca and Lecanora (Frank Dobson).

Cladonia Lecanora

The Lichens Of Offaly1 The current number of taxa in the Irish flora (lichens, lichenicolous fungi and allied fungi) is 1285. The following Offaly list contains only 271 taxa; although the county lacks many of the important habitats for a rich lichen flora, clearly there is considerable scope for lichenological study and a total of at least 400 taxa is to be expected. Nomenclature is mainly according to Coppins (2002). Taxa indicated by an asterisk (*) are lichenicolous fungi and non-lichenized fungi which are traditionally treated by lichenologists and usually overlooked by mycologists.

Acarospora fuscata (Schrad.) Th.Fr. A. radiata (Pers.) Ach. Acrocordia conoidea (Fr.) Körb. A. spadicea Leight. A. gemmata (Ach.) A.Massal. * Arthopyrenia analepta (Ach.) A.Massal. A. salweyi (Leight. ex Nyl.) A.L.Sm. * A. cerasi (Schrad.) A.Massal. Agonimia tristicula (Nyl.) Zahlbr. A. cinereopruinosa (Schaer.) A.Massal. Amandinea punctata (Hoffm.) Coppins & Scheid. * A. punctiformis A.Massal. Anisomeridium biforme (Borrer) R.C.Harris Aspicilia calcarea (L.) Körb. * Arthonia cinnabarina (DC.) Wallr. A. contorta (Hoffm.) Kremp. A. muscigena Th.Fr. Bacidia arceutina (Ach.) Arnold A. pruinata (Pers.) Steud. ex A.L.Sm. B. friesiana (Hepp) Körb. * A. punctiformis Ach. B. laurocerasi (Delise ex Duby) Zahlbr.

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B. phacodes Körb. Dimerella lutea (Dicks.) Trevis. B. rubella (Hoffm.) A.Massal. Diploicia canescens (Dicks.) A.Massal. Belonia nidarosiensis (Kindt) P.M.Jørg. & Vězda Diplotomma alboatrum (Hoffm.) Flot. Bilimbia sabuletorum (Schreb.) Arnold Enterographa crassa (DC.) Fée Bryophagus gloeocapsa Nitschke ex Arnold Evernia prunastri (L.) Ach. Bryoria fuscescens (Gyeln.) Brodo & D.Hawksw. Fellhanera bouteillei (Desm.) Vězda Byssoloma leucoblepharum (Nyl.) Vain. Flavoparmelia caperata (L.) Hale B. subdiscordans (Nyl.) P.James Fuscidea kochiana (Hepp) V.Wirth & Vězda Calicium viride Pers. F. lightfootii (Sm.) Coppins & P.James Caloplaca aurantia (Pers.) Hellb. Graphina anguina (Mont.) Müll.Arg. C. cerina (Ehrh. ex Hedw.) Th.Fr. Graphis elegans (Borrer ex Sm.) Ach. C. cerinella (Nyl.) Flagey G. scripta (L.) Ach. C. citrina (Hoffm.) Th.Fr. Hyperphyscia adglutinata (Flörke) Mayrhofer & Poelt C. crenularia (With.) J.R.Laundon Hypocenomyce scalaris (Ach. ex Lilj.) M.Choisy C. flavescens (Huds.) J.R.Laundon Hypogymnia physodes (L.) Nyl. C. holocarpa (Hoffm.) A.E.Wade H. tubulosa (Schaer.) Hav. C. luteoalba (Turner) Th.Fr. Hypotrachyna revoluta (Flörke) Hale C. obscurella (Lahm ex Körb.) Th.Fr. Icmadophila ericetorum (L.) Zahlbr. C. saxicola (Hoffm.) Nordin Japewiella tavaresiana (H.Magn.) Printzen Candelaria concolor (Dicks.) Stein Lecanactis abietina (Ach.) Körb. Candelariella aurella (Hoffm) Zahlbr. Lecania cuprea (A.Massal.) Van den Boom & Coppins C. medians (Nyl.) A.L.Sm. L. cyrtella (Ach.) Th.Fr. C. reflexa (Nyl.) Lettau L. erysibe (Ach.) Mudd C. vitellina (Hoffm.) Müll.Arg. L. hutchinsiae (Nyl.) A.L.Sm. C. xanthostigma (Ach.) Lettau L. naegelii (Hepp) Diederich & Van den Boom Catapyrenium pilosellum Breuss Lecanora aitema (Ach.) Hepp C. squamulosum (Ach.) Breuss L. albella (Pers.) Ach. Catillaria lenticularis (Ach.) Th.Fr. L. albescens (Hoffm.) Branth & Rostr. C. nigroclavata (Nyl.) Schuler L. argentata (Ach.) Malme Cetraria aculeata (Schreb.) Fr. L. campestris (Schaer.) Hue C. muricata (Ach.) Eckfeldt L. carpinea (L.) Vain. Chrysothrix candelaris (L.) J.R.Laundon L. chlarotera Nyl. Cladonia arbuscula (Wallr.) Flot. L. confusa Almb. C. cervicornis (Ach.) Flot. ssp. verticillata (Hoffm.) Ahti L. conizaeoides Nyl. ex Cromb. C. chlorophaea (Flörke ex Sommerf.) Spreng. L. dispersa (Pers.) Sommerf. C. ciliata Stirt. var. tenuis (Flörke) Ahti L. expallens Ach. C. coccifera (L.) Willd. L. intumescens (Rebent.) Rabenh. C. coniocraea (Flörke) Spreng. L. jamesii J.R.Laundon C. crispata var. cetrariiformis (Delise ex Duby) Vain. L. muralis (Schreb.) Rabenh. C. fimbriata (L.) Fr. L. piniperda Körb. C. floerkeana (Fr.) Flörke L. polytropa (Hoffm.) Rabenh. C. furcata (Huds.) Schrad. L. pulicaris (Pers.) Ach. C. glauca Flörke L. sambuci (Pers.) Nyl. C. gracilis (L.) Willd. L. symmicta (Ach.) Ach. C. macilenta Hoffm. L. varia (Hoffm.) Ach. C. ochrochlora Flörke Lecidea fuscoatra (L.) Ach. C. pocillum (Ach.) Grognot L. lithophila (Ach.) Ach. C. polydactyla (Flörke) Spreng. Lecidella elaeochroma (Ach.) M.Choisy C. portentosa (Dufour) Coem. L. stigmatea (Ach.) Hertel & Leuckert C. pyxidata (L.) Hoffm. Lepraria incana s.lat. C. ramulosa (With.) J.R.Laundon Leproplaca chrysodeta (Vain. ex Räsänen) J.R.Laundon C. rangiformis Hoffm. Leptogium gelatinosum (With.) J.R.Laundon C. scabriuscula (Delise) Nyl. L. lichenoides (L.) Zahlbr. C. squamosa Hoffm. L. tenuissimum (Dicks.) Körb. C. subulata (L.) F.H.Wigg. L. teretiusculum (Wallr. )Arnold C. uncialis ssp. biuncialis (Hoffm.) M.Choisy * Lichenodiplis lecanorae (Vouaux) Dyko & D.Hawksw. Clauzadea immersa (Hoffm.) Hafellner & Bellem. Lichenomphalia hudsoniana (H.S.Jenn.) Redhead et al. C. monticola (Ach.) Hafellner & Bellem. * Lichenostigma maureri Hafellner Cliostomum griffithii (Sm.) Coppins Loxospora elatinum (Ach.) A.Massal. Collema auriforme (With.) Coppins & J.R.Laundon Melanelia exasperata (De Not.) Essl. C. crispum (Huds.) F.H.Wigg. M. fuliginosa (Fr. ex Duby) Essl. C. cristatum (L.) F.H.Wigg. ssp. glabratula (Lamy) Coppins C. flaccidum (Ach.) Ach. M. subaurifera (Nyl.) Essl. C. tenax (Sw.) Ach. Micarea denigrata (Fr.) Hedl. Cresponea. premnea (Ach.) Egea & Torrente M. leprosula (Th.Fr.) Coppins & A.Fletcher Dermatocarpon miniatum (L.) W.Mann M. lignaria (Ach.) Hedl.

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M. nitschkeana (J.Lahm ex Rabenh.) Harm. Ramalina calicaris (L.) Fr. M. peliocarpa (Anzi) Coppins & R.Sant. R. canariensis J.Steiner M. prasina Fr. R. farinacea (L.) Ach. M. sylvicola (Flot.) Vězda & V.Wirth R. fastigiata (Pers.) Ach. Normandina pulchella (Borrer) Nyl. R. fraxinea (L.) Ach. Ochrolechia androgyna (Hoffm.) Arnold R. lacera (With.) J.R.Laundon O. parella (L.) A.Massal. Rhizocarpon geographicum (L.) DC. O. subviridis (Hoeg) Erichsen R. petraeum (Wulfen) A.Massal. O. tartarea (L.) A.Massal. R. reductum Th.Fr. Opegrapha atra Pers. R. umbilicatum (Ramond) Flagey O. calcarea Turner ex Sm. Rinodina gennarii Bagl. O. herbarum Mont. R. oleae Bagl. O. niveoatra (Borrer) J.R.Laundon R. roboris (Dufour ex Nyl.) Arnold O. rufescens Pers. R. sophodes (Ach.) A.Massal. O. varia Pers. Sarcogyne regularis Körb. O. vulgata (Ach.) Ach. Schismatomma cretaceum (Hue) J.R.Laundon Parmelia saxatilis (L.) Ach. S. decolorans (Turner & Borrer ex Sm.) Clauzade & Vězda P. sulcata Taylor Scoliciosporum chlorococcum (Graewe ex Stenh.) Vězda Parmelina pastillifera (Harm.) Hale Sticta limbata (Sm.) Ach. Parmotrema crinitum (Ach.) M.Choisy Strangospora ochrophora (Nyl.) R.A.Anderson P. perlatum (Huds.) M.Choisy Thelidium papulare (Fr.) Arnold Peltigera hymenina (Ach.) Delise ex Duby Thelotrema lepadinum (Ach.) Ach. P. membranacea (Ach.) Nyl. Toninia aromatica (Sm.) A.Massal. P. praetextata (Flörke ex Sommerf.) Zopf * T. episema (Nyl.) Timdal P. rufescens (Weiss) Humb. T. sedifolia (Scop.) Timdal Pertusaria albescens (Huds.) M.Choisy & Werner T. verrucarioides (Nyl.) Timdal var. corallina (Zahlbr.) J.R.Laundon Trapelia coarctata (Sm.) M.Choisy P. amara (Ach.) Nyl. T. placodioides Coppins & P.James P. coccodes (Ach.) Nyl. Trapeliopsis granulosa (Hoffm.) Lumbsch P. corallina (L.) Arnold Usnea ceratina Ach. P. hemisphaerica (Flörke) Erichsen U. cornuta Körb. P. hymenea (Ach.) Schaer. U. esperantiana P.Clerc P. leioplaca DC. U. fragilescens Hav. ex Lynge P. pertusa (Weigel) Tuck. U. fulvoreagens (Räsänen) Räsänen Petractis clausa (Hoffm.) Kremp. U. hirta (L.) F.H.Wigg. Phaeographis smithii (Leight.) de Lesd. U. subfloridana Stirt. Phaeophyscia orbicularis (Neck.) Moberg Verrucaria baldensis A.Massal. Phlyctis agelaea (Ach.) Flot. V. calciseda DC. P. argena (Spreng.) Flot. V. dufourii DC. Physcia adscendens (Fr.) H.Olivier V, fuscella (Turner) Winch P. aipolia (Ehrh. ex Humb.) Fürnr. V. hochstetteri Fr. P. caesia (Hoffm.) Fürnr. V. macrostoma Dufour ex DC. forma furfuracea de Lesd. P. leptalea (Ach.) DC. V. muralis Ach. P. tenella (Scop.) DC. V. nigrescens Pers. P. tribacia (Ach.) Nyl. V. viridula (Schrad.) Ach. Physconia distorta (With.) J.R.Laundon * Weddellomyces epicallopismum (Weddell) D.Hawksw. P. enteroxantha (Nyl.) Poelt Xanthoria candelaria (L.) Th.Fr. P. grisea (Lam.) Poelt X. elegans (Link) Th.Fr. Placynthiella uliginosa (Schrad.) Coppins & P.James X. parietina (L.) Th.Fr. Placynthium nigrum (Huds.) Gray X. polycarpa (Hoffm.) Th.Fr. ex Rieber Platismatia glauca (L.) W.L.Culb. & C.F.Culb. X. ucrainica S.Kondratyuk Polyblastia dermatodes A.Massal. Porina aenea (Wallr.) Zahlbr. Reference: P. chlorotica (Ach.) Müll.Arg. Coppins, B.J. (2002) Checklist of Lichens of Great P. leptalea (Durieu & Mont.) A.L.Sm. Britain and Ireland. British Lichen Society, London. P. linearis (Leight.) Zahlbr. Porpidia macrocarpa (DC.) Hertel & A.J.Schwab 1 Contributed by M.R.D. Seaward, Department of P. tuberculosa (Sm.) Hertel & Knoph Geography & Environmental Science, University of Protoblastenia calva (Dicks.) Zahlbr. Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP. P. rupestris (Scop.) J.Steiner Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf Punctelia borreri (Sm.) Krog P. subrudecta (Nyl.) Krog Pyrenula chlorospila Arnold P. macrospora (Degel.) Coppins & P.James Pyrrhospora quernea (Dicks.) Körb.

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