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Ramalina jamesii Krog

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Scientific name
Ramalina jamesii
Author
Krog
Common names
 
IUCN Specialist Group
Lichens
Kingdom
Fungi
Phylum
Ascomycota
Class
Lecanoromycetes
Order
Lecanorales
Family
Ramalinaceae
Assessment status
Published
Assessment date
2022-02-12
IUCN Red List Category
VU
IUCN Red List Criteria
D2
Assessors
Israel Pérez-Vargas; André Aptroot (ABL Herbarium, The Netherlands); Paula Matos (Universidade de Lisboa); Laurens Sparrius; Harrie J.M. Sipman; Alice Gerlach; Maaike Vervoort
Reviewers
Rebecca Yahr

Assessment Notes

The content on this page is fetched from The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/70382754/70382757

Justification

Ramalina jamesii is a rock-dwelling species that is narrowly endemic to Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago where it occurs at one site (Sparrius et al. 2017). Threats from trampling or wildfire could rapidly impact the whole population. The species is therefore listed as Vulnerable under criterion D2.

Geographic range

Ramalina jamesii is a rock-dwelling species that is narrowly endemic to Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago where it occurs at one site (Sparrius et al. 2017), from which it has been described, with an area of occupancy of 4 km2.

Population and Trends

The species is restricted to a single location. The population size is estimated at 1,000–10,000 mature individuals (size > 2 cm) from a complete survey in 2016. The number of individual thalli over 2 cm in size was estimated in each of the five occupied one hectare grid cells visited (Sparrius et al. 2017).

Population Trend: Unknown

Habitat and Ecology

It is saxicolous, growing on basalt volcanic rockfaces at higher elevation. It avoids calcareous rocks, which occur mainly at lower elevation and along the coast and is found growing together with other endemic macrolichens, such as Anzia centrifuga, Ramalina erosa, R. confertula, 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 locations. 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 site is within the Natura 2000 site Pico Branco. The species grows at higher elevations and the site can only be reached by a hiking trail. The geology limits development of infrastructure. The rocky cliffs are sparsely vegetated, making them less susceptible to changes in grazing regime and fires.

Source and Citation

Sparrius, L., Aptroot, A., Sipman, H., Pérez-Vargas, I., Matos, P., Gerlach, A. & Vervoort, M. 2024. Ramalina jamesii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T70382754A70382757. Accessed on 22 November 2025.

Country occurrence