Collema nigrescens
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Fungus or lichen > lichen > Lichen |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(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: | Collema nigrescens |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Huds.) DC. |
| 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: | A formerly widespread if local species of old trees. Now much reduced by pollution and the loss of Elm trees. Woodland occurrences threatened by under management. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Key evidence gaps exist concerning its current status, threats and remedial measures. Need to understand reasons for decline and best action moving forward. |
| 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: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Occurs on old trees with base-rich bark in both old woodland and in the general countryside on field trees. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Requires assessment of current status, threats and remedial measures, involving field work and desk study.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 100 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: An important first step for this species
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Produce plan to deliver remedial measures based on outcomes of Action 1 e.g. identifying solutions to issues identified in A1.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 100 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Advise and support site owners and managers to implement the site-level actions identifies in A1 and A2
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Advice & support
Duration: 6-10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Positive impacts on many threatened lichen species. Potential to bundle this with other grazing dependant woodland species.
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.