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Field Meeting at Leicester

The 1969 autumn field meeting of the British Lichen Society was based on Leicester and held from 31 October to 2 November. Thirteen members and friends were present. The lichens of Leicestershire (V.C. 55) are fairly well known as compared with many English counties and have been the subject of two recent publications (Hawksworth & Sowter, 1969; Sowter & Hawksworth, 1970) since the detailed account of the lichens of this county by Sowter (1950). The aims of this meeting were (a) to study in detail the saxicolous lichen flora of the Pre-Cambrian rocks of the Chamwood Forest, and (b) to collect data from relatively little worked areas in the south of the county. Leicestershire forms part of the Midland Plain of England, lying between latitudes 52° 23' and 52° 59' N and longitudes 0° 44' and 1° 37' W. Triassic Keuper Marls predominate over most of the county giving rise to a gently undulating topography most of which lies between 90 and 180 m (300-600 ft) above mean sea level. Pre-Cambrian volcanic ashes, slates and conglomerates, with associated granitic intrusions, rise through this plain north-west of the city of Leicester to form the hills of the Chamwood Forest which rise to 274 m (912 ft). Carboniferous Coal Measures and the Jurassic Lincolnshire oolitic limestones are important features of the extreme north-west and east, respectively. The mean annual rainfall varies from about 58 cm (23 in.) in the lower parts of the county to about 76 cm (30 in.) in the higher parts of the Chamwood Forest. The mean annual temperature in the city of Leicester is 9-4° C (49° F) and the prevailing winds are from the south-west. The whole of the county is affected by sulphur dioxide air pollution with zone 3 of Hawksworth & Rose (1970) predominating outside urban areas, except in some sheltered parts of the Chamwood Forest and in the south and east of the county where zone 4, and locally zone 5, communities are developed (i.e. mean winter sulphur dioxide levels c. 60-125 ug/nP).