- Proposed
- Under Assessment
- Preliminary Assessed
- Assessed
- VUPublished
Ramalina confertula Krog & Østh.
- Scientific name
- Ramalina confertula
- Author
- Krog & Østh.
- Common names
- IUCN Specialist Group
Lichens- Kingdom
- Fungi
- Phylum
- Ascomycota
- Class
- Lecanoromycetes
- Order
- Lecanorales
- Family
- Ramalinaceae
- Assessment status
- Published
- Assessment date
- 2022-06-01
- IUCN Red List Category
- VU
- IUCN Red List Criteria
- D2
- Assessors
- Sparrius, L., Aptroot, A., Sipman, H., Pérez-Vargas, I., Matos, P., Gerlach, A. & Vervoort, M.
- Reviewers
- Yahr, R.
Assessment Notes
Justification
Ramalina confertula is a rock-dwelling species that is narrowly endemic to Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago where it occurs at four locations (Sparrius et al. 2017). It has an extremely limited area of occupancy and extent of occurrence of 16km2 and is known from four locations, but there is no evidence of continuing decline or extreme fluctuations. Threats from trampling or wildfire could rapidly impact the whole population, and so it is assessed as Vulnerable under criterion D2.
Taxonomic notes
This is a shrubby species, with a greenish white, densely branched thallus, up to 2 cm diameter.Geographic range
This species is found only on the small island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago, and known only in four locations, each on a separate rock outcrop/volcano, with an area of occupancy of 16 km2.Population and Trends
A population size of 10,000-100,000 was estimated of numbers of individual thalli of a size > 2 cm, representing reproductively mature individuals at each site where they have been observed during a complete survey from 2016. The numbers are corrected for suitable habitat that could not be reached or visited during the survey (Sparrius et al. 2017).
Population Trend: unknown
Habitat and Ecology
This shrubby lichen is saxicolous, occurring on basaltic volcanic rockfaces at higher elevations in sites with high air humidity. It avoids calcareous rocks, which occur mainly at lower elevation and along the coast, and it is found growing together with other endemic macrolichens, such as Anzia centrifuga, Ramalina erosa, R. jamesii, R. nematodes and R. timdaliana.
Threats
This species occurs only on one small island. It could be threatened by extinction from wildfire or trampling (rock climbing, tourism) if development of tourism occurred in the vicinity of the population. The past impact of these threats has not been documented. Most sites are at quiet places at higher elevation and at some distance from paths and roads.Conservation Actions
The sites are partially within the Natura 2000 site Pico Branco. The species growths at higher elevations and sites can only be reached by hiking trails. The geology limits development of infrastructure. The rocky cliffs are sparsely vegetated, making them less susceptible to changes in grazing regime and fires.
