Lichen  (Calicium corynellum)

Threats

The biggest threat to this lichen is its extremely limited range in the UK. Since it was discovered in 1972, the lichen has decreased in area by 90 per cent on the church wall. Those growing on the tombstones are threatened by churchyard tidying schemes, cleaning of the individual gravestone and similar activities.

Conservation

Calicium corynellum is listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plans and included in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme. One of its sites is on the stones of a Saxon Church tower in Northumberland, but by 1992 it had dwindled to a few traces on five stones. Through the Species Recovery Programme, some detective work unearthed the fact that a large stone had been removed from the base of the tower and replaced with gravel, stopping cascading rain from a drainpipe splashing on the wall. The reduction in the moisture level was killing the lichen. English Nature paid for a slab to be replaced and now it is hoped that the lichen will recover.

There may be further information about this species available via the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.
The UK Biodiversity Action Plan for this species is available at UK BAP.
left