Collema fragrans
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Fungus or lichen > lichen > Lichen |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(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: | Scytinium fragrans |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Sm.) Otálora, P.M. Jørg. & Wedin |
| 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: | Endangered. Now a very rare species, with many former sites/populations on elm trees now lost. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Specific niche of nutrient runs or bare wood on base-rich bark/wood. |
| 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 pasture woodlands & parklands. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Extinction debt |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Still has a large meta-population on Beech in the New Forest, but very few surviving populations beyond and these are highly threatened. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Survey of all recently known sites. Establish a national monitoring programme and baseline, to determine 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: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Undertaken with a sampling method in New Forest, all recent sites outside, could be combined with Bellicidia incompta.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Monitor trial management at Savernake Forest and at Whiddon Deer Park (following scheduled work). Needs to be cyclical e.g. every 5 years.
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:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Provide advice and support to enable long-term favourable management of the sites for this species.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Advice & support
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
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.