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Topic: lichens and fungi

When is a lichen not a lichen?

when its listed as a fungus!

This was spotted by wildlife trust colleagues in an output from us.  the species Cladonia chlorophaea (and indeed the "aggregate" for sens. lat. are assigned a taxon group of fungus rather than lichen.... All other cladonias are listed as lichens.

This led me to do some digging on the NBN Gateway, where the same problem seems to occur - see the species listings below, where I have given the details from the gateway of the species outputting as fungi, and also a couple of correct lichen examples.......

The only other example I have found in our admittedly depauperate lichen species for Cambridgeshire is that Hypotrachyna afrorevoluta is assigned a similar fate......

Name: Cladonia chlorophaea agg.
Authority:
Taxon Version Key: NHMSYS0001477609
Rank: Species aggregate
Name Form: Well-formed
Output Group: fungus
Taxon Reference: Cladonia chlorophaea agg., NHMSYS0001477609


Name: Cladonia chlorophaea
Authority: (Flörke ex Sommerf.) Spreng.
Taxon Version Key: NHMSYS0001477608
Rank: Species
Name Form: Well-formed
Output Group: fungus
Taxon Reference: Cladonia chlorophaea (Flörke ex Sommerf.) Spreng., NHMSYS0001477608

Name: Cladonia cf. fimbriata
Authority: 
Taxon Version Key: NHMSYS0001477607
Rank: Species
Name Form: Well-formed
Output Group: lichen
Taxon Reference: Cladonia cf. fimbriata, NHMSYS0001477607

Name: Cladonia pyxidata
Authority: (L.) Hoffm.
Taxon Version Key: NBNSYS0000018398
Rank: Species
Name Form: Well-formed
Output Group: lichen
Taxon Reference: Cladonia pyxidata (L.) Hoffm., NBNSYS0000018398


Name: Hypotrachyna afrorevoluta
Authority: (Krog & Swinscow) Krog & Swinscow
Taxon Version Key: NHMSYS0001485112
Rank: Species
Name Form: Well-formed
Output Group: fungus
Taxon Reference: Hypotrachyna afrorevoluta (Krog & Swinscow) Krog & Swinscow, NHMSYS0001485112


Name: Hypotrachyna revoluta
Authority: (Flörke) Hale
Taxon Version Key: NHMSYS0001485115
Rank: Species
Name Form: Well-formed
Output Group: lichen
Taxon Reference: Hypotrachyna revoluta (Flörke) Hale, NHMSYS0001485115

Louise, CPERC

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Re: lichens and fungi

Well spotted Louise - yes there are a few anomalies like this. When we tidied up the British lichens with Brian & Janet from the BLS I tried to correct as many as possible but some of them were ambiguous or were missed by accident. I will see if I can track those particular ones down today :)

Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD.  (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)

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Re: lichens and fungi

The Cladonia spp. have been sorted out and it looks like I did the Hypotrachyna earlier on but the NBNG hasn't updated that taxonomy version yet :)

Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD.  (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)