Baden-Württemberg - Lichens of Wales

anitroph., Char. Chrysotrichetalia chlor. – borsmed(-med-mo)
– r.rare; Sch, Vog, Pf, RhSch,
ThW, v.rare O, Rhön
LIT.: LAUNDON 1981, TONSBERG 1992.
Cladonia Hill ex Browne
(Determination incl. Pycnothelia)
Introduction
The species of the genus Cladonia are usually
moderately conspicuous fruticose lichens.
Numbered with them are the well known reindeer
and cup lichens. The Cladonia plant consists, as
a rule, of two parts, that spreading over the
substrate “ground based,” squamulose or small
foliose thallus and the more or less erect
growing, higher podetia, whose many forms are
known: horn- or peg-form, strongly bushy
branching, trumpet- or coral-like. On the podetia
develop brown, deep red or rarely yellowish
apothecia without thalloid margin. Often no
apothecia are produced; reproduction then occurs
by thallus fragments or soredia, with which the
upper surface of the may be entirely or partially
covered. In the case of the richly branching,
almost never fruiting reindeer lichens, the basic
thallus is extremely reduced.
Many species are very variable. The species
concept is in many cases not stable. They are
frequently separated into several chemical races,
sometimes even hybrid intermediate forms. The
world wide distributed genus numbers perhaps
350 species. In the Federal Republic of Germany
are – according to species understanding – ca. 60
to 67 species recorded, in Baden-Württemberg
54 to 62.
The Cladonia species live on naked soil, raw
humus, moss, decaying wood, rarely bark and
weathered rock. They usually flourish under well
lighted, humid conditions on acid soil, on sites,
on which through great nutrient distress or soil
surface features has inhibited the competition of
higher plants or the vegetation layer has not yet
closed after disturbance. They are frequently
found on appropriate sites, e.g. rocky clearings,
numerous unrelated species, as e.g. C.
rangiferina, C. arbuscula, C. protentosa, C.
furcata, C. squamosa, C. gracilis, C. pysidata, C.
pleurota, C. unicalis and others. Under more
humid conditions reindeer lichens and other
Cladonias may even compete in dwarf shrubby
heath.
On decaying wood – almost all also on raw
humus and peat – live especially C. botrytes, C.
cenotea, C. coniocraea, C. digitata, C. pysicata
ssp. chlorephaea, C. macilenta, C. norvegica, C.
parasitica (almost only on oak stumps), C.
polydactyla and C .squamosa. C. incrassata
over runs peat, especially on the walls of peatcutting.
Calcareous soils are only typical for a few
species, thus for C. furcata ssp. subrangiformis,
c. rangiformis, C. convoluta, C. symphycarpa, C.
pysicata ssp. pysicata and ssp. pocillum. They
are found in dry turfs and rocky meadows.
Most of the indigenous species are distributed
in the central European region and in the boreal
zone, and isolated up into the arctic. The area is
partially stretched into the mediterranean region;
to these very widely distributed species belong C.
cariosa, C. cervicornis, C. cenotea, C.
coniocraea, C. digitata, C. fimbriata, C. furcata,
C. mitis, C. pysidata, C. squamosa, C. subulata
and C. symphycarpa. Widely distributed in
central and north Europe (mostly up into the
arctic) are also C. arbuscula, C. cornuta, C.
deformis, C. gracilis, C. phyllophora, C.
pleurota, C. rangiferina, C. rei and C. unicalis;
they penetrate however – often with the
exception of the Pyrenees –scarcely toward south
Europe. The area of C. amaurocraea, C.
bellidiflora, C. botrytes, C. carneola, C.
macrophylla, C. metacorallifera, C. stellaris and
C. sulphurina stretches over the boreal zone and
frequently up into the arctic; in central Europe
these species occur only as disjuncts penetrating
the mountains. In the region they live on
overhanging rocks of the high places, cold
boulder fields and peat moors. The central
European habitat lies mostly in the Böhmerwald,
in Fichtel- and Erzgebirge, in the Sudentes, in
Harz, in the Vosges, in the Black Forest and in
the Alps.
Many Cladonias reach the northern boundary
in southern Sweden and Finland, penetrating
however near the sea in western Scandinavia
further toward the north. In the south stretching
the distribution area usually to the submediterranean
or partially, as e.g. in the case of
C. ciliata and C. rangiformis, into the
mediterranean region. This group includes C.
caespitica, C. ciliata, C. portentosa, C. foliacea,
C. ramulosa, C. rangiformis, C. rei and C. zopfii.
Many of these species show westward
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