Mountain Leader Training: Environment Today

Alpine Club Moss – A relic of natures evolution, club moss were the first trees

Well I know that this is a climbing coaching blog however due to my work from time to time I do a few post that are more relevant to instructors, coaches or in this case Mountain Walking Leader, who as part of there course have to know things about the environment. Whilst this is a broad subject, today whilst I was teaching a group from Coleg Menai at Plas Y brenin we look at what plant life we could see on our way. We saw quite a lot, so these are the pictures of what we saw on out day out on the hill.

Thimble Lichen – Looks like a Golf Tee


Star Moss – Its a moss that has a starry shape!



Reindeer Lichen – One of the stable diets of reindeer, according to Ray Mears or some other BBC programme in large enough quantities it makes the Reindeer ‘High!’


Geographicum (sic) looks like a map – aka Map Lichen. Lichen is a symbiotic relationship between Algae and Fungus. The fungus beds itself to the rock, and the algae roots itself to Fungus and photosynthesises providing energy.


Loose leaf lichen – likes wood, but will grow on rovk, has lots of loose thin paper leaves. Hence the name.

The Devils Match Stick – Looks like and old non-safety match.

Club moss – a slightly larger version of the alpine club moss. Looks like a mini club.

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