Endangered Species Report

By Anonymous -

Starry Breck Lichen

Starry Breck Lichen   
If you like cookies and cream flavored ice cream, this lichen is perfect for you. (Don't try eating it, though.... it doesn't taste like cookies at all.) The Starry Breck Lichen is a type of lichen that is now thought to only be found near Germany or Norway. Scientifically, it's name is Buellia asterella. It is a critically endangered species, thanks to agricultural and urban development. The lichen looks like white moss, with black dots scattered on it. It isn't really noticed, since it doesn't have much of a use and is extremely rare. 

 This lichen's threats are quite common for most plants- it's extremely sensitive to habitat loss and destruction from agricultural and urban development. Along with this, grasslands where the lichen lives in are usually filled with tourists, which comes with the added risk of people picking it up. Even IUCN says that "collecting of this species and all other members of its lichen community should be strictly forbidden", further demonstrating how critically endangered this plant is.

Overall, this plant is important and should be kept safe(although most viewers have an inability to do much about it). Although it currently seems that there's not much hope, that may change in the future.
(Sorry for the glitchy table)

 Sources:
Arkive Starry Breck Lichen
IUCN Red List Buellia Asterella
IUCN pdf on Buellia Asterella (the third option on the page as of February 8th, 2016)

KingdomPhylumClassOrderFamily
Fungi Ascomycota Lecanoromycetes Teloschistales Physciaceae


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