Bacidia incompta
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Fungus or lichen > lichen > Lichen |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Bellicidia incompta |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Borrer ex Hook.) Kistenich, Timdal, Bendiksby & S. Ekman |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Woods & Coppins, 2012 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Widespread in England but has suffered declines (abundance and range), likely following loss of elm and currently likely to be threatened by loss of ash. Bulk of GB population in S England, and most frequent in the SW (BLS 2024). |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | A specialist of nutrient runs or bare wood on base-rich bark/wood. Knowledge gaps exist concerning conservation techniques. The loss of elm (and now ash) has badly impacted populations. Ensuring a continuity of suitable host trees is key to its survival. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Likely to benefit from availability of mature neutral to basic barked trees allowed to age naturally in well-lit wood pasture and parkland environments |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 6. Recovery solutions trialled |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Still relatively widespread although a decline is suggested, likely in response to e.g. loss of elm. Trial management occurred through Back from the Brink project at Savernake Forest. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Implement a programme of national monitoring, including establishing a baseline and determining current trend and condition of population.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments: Where possible, undertaken with a sampling method
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Monitor trial management at 2 sites (Savernake Forest and at Whiddon Deer Park)
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: Savernake Forest, Whiddon Deer Park
Comments: Monitoring of trial management at Savernake Forest and at Whiddon Deer Park where work is about to take place. Needs to be cyclical e.g. every 5 years
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.