Arthonia atlantica

Description & Identification: 

Thallus effuse (spread out and flattened) or forming mosaics with other lichens. White to pale grey, matt, cracked-areolate (crazy-paving like). Apothecia more or less immersed in the thallus, irregulalry rounded (to 0.2mm dia) though more usually elongate or stellate, often joining to form an irregular reticulum (network). 

Habitats: 

 Hard acid rocks in dry underhangs and sheltered sides of old walls, usually near the coast.

Distribution: 

 SW England, W Scotland, W Ireland and W Wales. Outside the British Isles known only from Brittany.

Records from Wales:

Location Grid Reference Last Rec'd Recorder SSSI
Cardigan: Codmor NNR SN14, SN24 1996 A. Orange & P. Wolseley Yes
Caernarfon: Nantgwynant SH65  1973 A. Pentecost Yes
Meirionydd: Porthmadog SH58274107 2002 A. Orange  
Pembroke: Skomer Island - North Castle SM7305  1750-1996 Unknown Yes
Radnor: Coed Aberedw SO0747  1960 Unknown Yes
Notes on individual locations: 

Skomer Island - surveyed by Natural History Museum lichenologists in the mid-1990s, but this species not recorded.

Coed Aberedw - the record in the Welsh Threatened Lichen database puts this site in Ceredigion. But there is no site of this name in this vc and the grid-ref places the record in the Radnor site. This inland site is anomalous however.

Coedmor - occasional on rock outcrops in NNR compartments 2,6,9,10 and 11. 

Porthmadog - Pen y Garn, Prenteg. On rocks below overhang in Quercus petraea woodland.

Proposed Actions: 
  UKBAP Signposting Actions:
1. Monitor the habitat and species at two extant sites, at least every 6 years, to ensure that management maintains or expands woodland continuity and modify accordingly. Pay special attention to threats from excessive shade cast by climbers, and evergreen trees and shrubs, particularly invasive non-native species, and inappropriate grazing levels and forestry operations.
2. Promote agri-environment schemes capable of delivering appropriate site management.