''Cladonia perforata'' is a rare species of lichen known as Florida perforate cladonia and Florida perforate reindeer lichen. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

in the United States, where it is known from 16 populations in four widely separated areas of the state.USFWS
''Cladonia perforata'' Five-year Review.
2007. It is native to a very specific type of

Florida scrub Florida sand pine scrub is an endangered subtropical forest ecoregion found throughout Florida in the United States. It is found on coastal and inland sand ridges and is characterized by an evergreen xeromorphic plant community dominated by shrub ...

habitat which is increasingly rare and patchy due to

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, degradation, and

fragmentation Fragmentation or fragmented may refer to: Computers * Fragmentation (computing), a phenomenon of computer storage * File system fragmentation, the tendency of a file system to lay out the contents of files non-continuously * Fragmented distributi ...

. In 1993 this was the first species of lichen to be federally listed as an endangered species of the United States.Teague, D. and D. Ripley
A tale of two species.
''Endangered Species Bulletin''. November, 2000.Milius, S
Yikes! The Lichens Went Flying - lichens as endangered species.
''Science News'' August 26, 2000.

Description

This lichen is relatively large, its yellow-gray, slightly glossy

fruiting body The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cy ...

measuring up to in length.USFWS
Endangered or threatened status for seven Central Florida plants.
''Federal Register'' April 27, 1993. The fruiting body, the visible part of the lichen, is a branching, tufted structure. The branches, or '' podetia'', are lined with

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one o ...

e on their inner surfaces and are

perforated A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

with tiny holes. It and similar species undergo

vegetative reproduction Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spe ...

in which it clones by physically breaking up and spreading. No

sexual reproduction Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete ( haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote th ...

has been observed. The lichen's method of

biological dispersal Biological dispersal refers to both the movement of individuals (animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, etc.) from their birth site to their breeding site ('natal dispersal'), as well as the movement from one breeding site to another ('breeding dis ...

is to have its fragments swept or blown to new locations. In general, this species is poorly known. Little information is available about its life history, including its precise reproductive cycle, growth,

population dynamics Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems. History Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has ...

, or any seasonal changes it might experience.

Distribution and habitat

The habitat of this species is the white sand of the Florida scrub, already a rare and endangered type of ecosystem, and the lichen requires a specific spot within the habitat. It can be found on high

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

s and ridges among sand pines (''Pinus clausa'') in the part of the scrub

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited from British co ...

called "rosemary balds": land dominated by Florida rosemary (''Ceratiola ericoides'').USFWS
''Cladonia perforata'' Species Fact Sheet.
Multispecies Recovery Plan for South Florida. The lichen occurs in very dry, open sites on sand with little plant cover around it. It can often be found tangled up in clumps with other species of lichen. It is difficult to estimate the abundance of this species. Much of the current data is outdated. The organism in question is often small and sometimes hard to spot on the ground or in the

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...

. Furthermore, what constitutes one individual organism is not always apparent; one living lichen may be several centimeters long or just a tiny fragment. Populations fluctuate often, occurrences are destroyed, and several new ones have been discovered and rediscovered in recent years. The species was first discovered in 1945 by

George A. Llano George Albert Llano (22 November 1911 – 9 February 2003), born Jorge Alberto Cecilio Perez y Llano, was a Cuban-born American polar explorer and botanist who specialized in the field of lichenology. He was an expert in the Umbilicariaceae. Ea ...

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...

property on Santa Rosa Island near

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

.Buckley, A. and T. O. Hendrickson. (1988)
The distribution of ''Cladonia perforata'' Evans on the southern Lake Wales Ridge in Highlands County, Florida.
''The Bryologist'' 91(4): 354–356. This, the lichen's

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

, was later paved and the population presumably destroyed. A population was rediscovered in this area of the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the G ...

in 1989.Wilhelm, G. S. and J. R. Burkhalter. (1990)
''Cladonia perforata'', the Northwest Florida population.
''The Bryologist'' 93(1): 66–68. The species has a

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

: the other populations are located on the east and west coasts of the main peninsula of Florida.

Conservation

Threats to this species include development of its habitat for residential,

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

, and commercial use, pollution and trash dumping,

off-road vehicle An off-road vehicle, sometimes referred to as an overland or adventure vehicle, is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving on and off paved or gravel surface. It is generally characterized by having large tires with d ...

use, trampling and crushing by people, animals, and vehicles, and severe storms and

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

s. Natural processes such as

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depe ...

s and fires are necessary for maintaining habitat such as Florida scrub, but these events do kill the lichen by burning it,Yahr, R. (2003)
''Cladonia perforata''
2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2010
www.iucnredlist.org
. Retrieved on 12 February 2011. crushing it to small pieces, sweeping it away in

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the ...

s, or burying it in sand.

Hurricane Opal Hurricane Opal was a large and powerful Category 4 hurricane that caused severe and extensive damage along the northern Gulf Coast of the United States in October 1995. The fifteenth named storm, ninth hurricane and strongest tropical cyclon ...

in 1995, for example, destroyed at least two known occurrences of the lichen. Lichen rescue operations are sometimes performed in the days after a hurricane in an effort to unbury individuals from sand and debris, and even pluck them out of trees where they have landed. Some individuals are collected on beds of sand and brought indoors when storms are expected. Even if the lichen itself is undamaged in a storm, parts of its rare, limited potential habitat may be rendered unsuitable by disturbances. The lichen is also vulnerable because it is slow-growing, slow to recover after mortality, inefficient in its dispersal, and already rare with unstable populations. Its patchy, fragmented distribution makes it likely to experience isolation and

extirpation Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

of small populations. Since most populations are just clusters of clones, each population is extremely valuable in the conservation of the species. The populations occur in North, Central, and South Florida, and can be separated by hundreds of miles;

gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration or geneflow and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalen ...

between them is often highly unlikely. New populations have been reintroduced to appropriate habitat where the species has been observed before. Many populations are located in areas that are protected from development and fragmentation. At last review the species was still considered endangered.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3678926 perforata Lichen species Lichens of the Southeastern United States Lichens described in 1952