Anaptychia mamillata
A very local lichen of sheltered coastal rocks and rock-turf interfaces. Similar to Anaptychia ciliaris but has narrower strap like thalli which are dark grey to brown when dry and dark olive-green coloration when wet, and lacks any tomentum on the upper surface.
Differs from Anaptychia ciliaris in the consistently narrower thallus lobes, ca 2 mm broad, dark grey to brown when dry and dark olive-green coloration when wet, and absence of any tomentum on the upper surface.
Thalli may be confused with Anaptychia runcinata (found in similar habitats) but have marginal cilia. Morphs in coastal turf tend to be smaller and much paler than those directly on maritime rocks; they could represent a different taxon. A. mamillata was treated as a subspecies of A. ciliaris by Edwards & Purvis (2009), but preliminary molecular data (Lohtander et al., 2008) suggest that they represent distinct species, and they are distinguishable in both morphological and ecological terms.
Predominantly on sheltered coastal rocks and rock-turf interfaces in the xeric-supralittoral zone; rare and very local.
Scattered sites in the west from Devon and Isles of Scilly north to Shetland and along the east coast south to Berwickshire; S.W. Ireland.
This lichen has a very scattered distibution with some populations very small and vulnerable to loss to vegetation overgrowth with the abandoment of coastal slope grazing.
Britain: Near Threatened
Wales: Near Threatened
Cannon, P., Thüs, H., Aptroot, A., Coppins, B., Orange, A., Sanderson, N. & Simkin, J. (2022). Caliciales: Physciaceae, including the genera Anaptychia, Heterodermia, Hyperphyscia, Mischoblastia, Phaeophyscia, Physcia, Physciella, Physconia, Rinodina and Tornabea. Revisions of British and Irish Lichens 23: 1–37.
Edwards, B. & Purvis, O.W. (2009). Anaptychia. In: Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland (Smith, C.W., Aptroot, A., Coppins, B.J., Fletcher, A., Gilbert, O.L., James, P.W. & Wolseley, P.A. eds): 146–148. London: British Lichen Society.
Lohtander, K., Ahti, T., Stenroos, S. & Urbanavichus, G. (2008). Is Anaptychia monophyletic? A phylogenetic study based on nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Annales Botanici Fennici 45: 55–60.
Text by Neil A Sanderson based on Cannon et al (2022)