Great satisfactions for tiny discoveries

“Natura maxime miranda in minimis” (“Nature is greatest admired in the tiniest things”) is an expression attributed to Linnaeus – who in turn took it from Plinius the Old – that describes very well the wonder one feels when observing the marvellous and tiny complexity of organisms such as lichens.

Not all the lichens are microscopic, but it happens that also in groups characterized by conspicuous and showy species, like genus Cladonia, there can be also more discreet species, which risk to remain overlooked just because of their inconspicuous size.

Among these species we can find Cladonia peziziformis, a very tiny and often unnoticed species which is currently rare and threatened in the whole of Europe, to the point that it is protected in some Countries, e.g. in Great Britain, where it is considered a priority species (Chambers 2003) assessed as critically endangered (Woods & Coppins 2012).
This lichen has lilliputian podetia, generally not taller than a half centimetre, and, since it grows directly on soil, it can be quite difficult to notice. One could therefore think that its putative rarity in Europe is due to this difficulty of detection, but instead it is actually rare and declining, mostly because it is closely bound to specific habitats which are declining as well, i.e. heathlands (Tønsberg & Øvstedal 1995).
Until few years ago, in Italy this species had been reported only from Liguria, but recently it has been recorded in several sites of the western Po Plain (Piedmont and Lombardy) in which Calluna vulgaris-dominated heathlands and/or acidic dry grasslands still occur (Gheza 2018, 2020; Gheza et al. 2019a), which confirmed its bond to such endangered habitats.

Cladonia peziziformis

A similar species which can share the same habitat is Cladonia cariosa, that is however far more widespread in the whole of Italy and Europe. We could say that where we find C. peziziformis also C. cariosa is very likely to occur, but not vice-versa.
So far, the most interesting sites where observe both the species together were located along the upper Sesia rivercourse (Gheza et al. 2019a; Gheza 2020), but unfortunately the anomalous flood of October 2020 buried under about a metre of pebbles and debris most of the dry grasslands located near the riverbed, causing a considerable decrease in the number of occurrence sites of both the species in the Sesia river valley. Which, of course, upset me.

Cladonia cariosa

Almost like a sort of ‘compensation’ from the karma, however, during one of my last inspections in the Ticino river valley on account of the Life Drylands project for which I am currently working, I accidentally found a new occurrence site of both the species in a small patch of acidic dry grassland.

The curious thing is that the last time I explored that grassland – right seven years ago, during the fieldwork for my MSc thesis – it was almost devoid of lichens! Just few thalli of the commonest species occurred – C. foliacea, C. rangiformis, C. rei. Instead, now 8 species of Cladonia occur, among which C. peziziformis and C. cariosa, which were absent seven years ago.

The grassland in which I have recently found Cladonia peziziformis within the Parco Ticino Lombardo (Lombardy Ticino Natural Park); even if it seems not exactly a biodiversity-rich habitat in its winter look studded with withered grass tufts, it is actually an important habitat for many organisms, not just for lichens.

Both these species had already been reported from the Ticino river valley (Gheza 2018; Gheza et al. 2019b); in spite of this, the discovery of this new site, considering also the relevant extent of the colonies, is surely an important information to know and take in account for future conservation planning.

Cladonia cariosa

As outlined above, Cladonia peziziformis and Cladonia cariosa are very similar and easy to mistake with each other, if one has only a scarce experience about. They have both capitate podetia which bear one or more wide brown apothecia, with a range of morphological variation which is enough to create some confusion in a newcomer.
The most reliable feature to discriminate between the two species is the primary thallus: C. peziziformis has rounded or ear-shaped squamules with entire margin and procumbent posture, whereas C. cariosa has incised and generally erected squamules.
Colours are slightly different as well – since also secondary metabolites differ between the two species – since C. peziziformis is more greenish, while C. cariosa is somehow more grayish. But this feature can be misleading, so it is always better to check carefully the primary thallus.

Which one is which one?!? (both the species are featured in this single shot) – In the dry grasslands on acidic sediments in the upper western Po Plain, these two species often occur together, and they characterize a particular lichen community which is typical of pioneer substrates (Gheza et al. 2019a).

A (not-so-)tiny satisfaction was also seeing that the post on the official Facebook profile of the Life Drylands project about this finding has been a great success, totalizing the highest number of ‘likes’ of all the contents ever posted on the page, and furthermore it has been shared by a considerable number of followers. I would have never expected such success for a post about tiny lichens!
I really hope that also this can contribute to increase the awareness of the general public about the urgent necessity to protect and restore natural habitats as the only efficient way to protect also many rare, sensitive and fascinating organisms like these tiny lichens.

A rich terricolous lichen community featuring C. peziziformis, C. cariosa, C. polycarpoides and C. rei scattered amongst withered tufts of Armeria arenaria.

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References

Chambers S.P. 2003. Site Dossiers for the UK BAP lichens Biatoridium monasteriense, Cladonia peziziformis, Graphina pauciloculata and Schismatomma graphidioides. CCW Contract Science Report N. 586.

Gheza G. 2018. Addenda to the lichen flora of the Ticino river valley (western Po Plain). Natural History Sciences 5 (2): 33-40.

Gheza G. 2020. I licheni terricoli degli ambienti aperti aridi della pianura piemontese. Rivista Piemontese di Storia Naturale 41: 147-155.

Gheza G., Barcella M., Assini S. 2019a. Terricolous lichen communities in Thero-Airion grasslands of the Po Plain (Northern Italy): syntaxonomy, ecology and conservation value. Tuexenia 39: 377-400.

Gheza G., Nicola S., Parco V., Assini S. 2019b. La diversità lichenica nella Valle del Ticino: conoscenze in continua evoluzione. 32° Convegno della Società Lichenologica Italiana, Bologna, 18-20 September 2019, poster presentation – Notiziario della Società Lichenologica Italiana 32: 56.

Tønsberg T., Øvstedal D.O. 1995. Cladonia peziziformis new to Norway from a burnt Calluna heath. Graphis scripta 7: 11-12.

Woods R.G., Coppins B.J. 2012. A Conservation Evaluation of British Lichens and Lichenicolous Fungi. Species Status 13. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough.

Cladonias of Monte Ferrato

In conclusion of the XXXI meeting of the Italian Lichen Society in Pistoia (Tuscany), in September 2018, I took part to the final excursion which took place at Monte Ferrato, a huge ophiolite outcrop located in the outskirts of the city of Prato.

Ophiolite is a very interesting substrate for lichens (see the review by Favero-Longo et al. 2004), and I was curious to check which Cladonias would occur there, after having developed in the past years some knowledge on the Cladonias of the ophiolite outcrops of the province of Pavia (Lombardy).
The other peculiarity of the site chosen for the excursion was that the area had been investigated 80-90 years ago by the spouses Ettore Sambo (1884-1971) and Maria Cengia Sambo (1888-1939), who lived in Prato. Maria Cengia Sambo in particular is remembered as one of the few Italian lichenologists between the “Golden Age of Italian lichenology” (from the 1840s to the 1910s) and the “Reinassance of Italian lichenology” (from the late 1980s). However, her skills in identifying lichens are still controversial, and some of her identifications are considered unreliable – especially in some cases in which she proposed new taxa.
Both the Sambos investigated lichens on Monte Ferrato: Sambo (1927) under a floristic perspective, Cengia Sambo (1937) considering also the ecology of the lichens on the ultramafic substrate and the morpho-physiological modifications caused by it (e.g. “stenophyllous forms”, thalli with underdeveloped lobes due to the harsh conditions found on ophiolite substrates).

Overall, in their 2 papers (Sambo 1927; Cengia Sambo 1937) the Sambos reported 21 Cladonia taxa (Appendix 1), whereas during the SLI excursion on M. Ferrato I managed to find only 4 terricolous species (Appendix 3), which are more or less the same ones I collected on the ophiolites of the Lombardy Apennine – perhaps there is also a fifth species, but its primary thallus is so underdeveloped (or just young) that I wasn’t able to identify it.
Even if we investigated only a small area, and therefore we could have missed some species (since the Sambos explored a very larger extent of Monte Ferrato and neighbouring hills), some considerations can be done, especially in the light of the misidentifications of Cladonia specimens carried out by the Sambos (Appendix 2).

The first thing emerging from the two papers by the Sambos, about Cladonia, is a nomenclatural and taxonomic mess. For example, C. muricata, C. pungens and C. rangiformis are listed as different species, while nowadays they are all recognized just as synonyms of C. rangiformis; the same is for C. alcicornis and C. endiviaefolia, which both indicate C. convoluta – which has recently been synonymized with C. foliacea (Appendix 1).
The other problem is of biogeographical nature: the records of strictly (sub)alpine species such as C. amaurocraea, C. phyllophora, C. stellaris, C. uncialis, were already considered very dubious by Nimis (1993), and seemed very unlikely also to me. In spite of what stated by Cengia-Sambo about the “alpine species came down from the Alps unto Monte Ferrato”, environmental and climatic conditions were probably unadequate to those species also a century ago, and according to Occam’s Razor an erroneous identification is the most reliable explanation. It could easily be, e.g., that the reindeer lichens reported by the Sambos (C. rangiferina, C. stellaris) were instead C. portentosa, which still occurs in the hills of Tuscany.

We were able to ascertain [some of] the erroneous identifications, because during the writing of the paper (Munzi et al. 2019), Luca Di Nuzzo went to the ECI (Central Italian Herbarium) of Florence, where some of the lichen collections of the Sambos are still preserved, in order to check the real identity of the available specimens (Appendix 2).
It was surprising that the Sambos misidentified also easy and common species. We must consider that at that time things were more difficult for lichenologists, especially for the few Italian ones, who were isolated from the Central-European lichenology; however, mistakes like attributing to C. amaurocraea and C. uncialis two specimens of C. rangiformis and a specimen of C. furcata to C. convoluta are quite surprising.
Among those specimens, that of C. portentosa was recorded under “C. rangiformis” and there are no specimens reported under “C. rangiferina” nor “C. stellaris“, so the question about the real identity of the reindeer lichens found by the Sambos remains.
Finally, it is strange that the Sambos did not report C. symphycarpa, which is quite common on basic substrates and also on ophiolites in the Northern Apennine (pers. obs.); but maybe they found it and just reported it as a “strongly stenophyllous Cladonia foliacea“…

This research was useful to better understand the real identity of the Cladonias reported from Monte Ferrato. Also for other lichen genera interesting observations were made (see Munzi et al. 2019).
This points out the importance of checking historical records which appear dubious, that is possible only when matching specimens are stored in historical herbaria. So, once again, the importance of herbaria is highlighted by this story.

The jolly group of lichenologists at the excursion on Monte Ferrato at the end of the XXXI meeting of the Italian Lichen Society in Pistoia (Tuscany).

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Appendix 1
Cladonia taxa reported by Sambo (1927) and Cengia-Sambo (1937):
Cladonia amaurocraea (sub Cladonia amaurocraea, Cladonia amaurocraea var. dicraea) (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia cervicornis (sub Cladonia verticillata var. cervicornis) (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia coccifera (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia fimbriata (sub Cladonia fimbriata var. digitata) (Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia foliacea f. foliacea (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia foliacea f. convoluta (sub Cladonia alcicornis, Cladonia convoluta, Cladonia endiviaefolia) (Sambo 1927, Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia furcata ssp. furcata (sub Cladonia furcata, Cladonia furcata var. racemosa, Cladonia furcata var. racemosa f. nana) (Sambo 1927, Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia furcata ssp. subrangiformis (sub Cladonia subrangiformis) (Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia gracilis (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia macilenta (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia phyllophora (sub Cladonia degenerans) (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia pocillum (sub Cladonia pyxidata var. pocillum) (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia pycnoclada (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia pyxidata (Sambo 1927, Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia rangiferina (sub Cladonia rangiferina var. prolifera) (Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia rangiformis (sub Cladonia muricata, Cladonia pungens, Cladonia pungens f. nana, Cladonia rangiformis) (Sambo 1927, Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia stellaris (sub Cladonia alpestris) (Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia subulata (sub Cladonia cornuto-radiata) (Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia squamosa (Sambo 1927, Cengia-Sambo 1937)
Cladonia uncialis (Sambo 1927)
Cladonia sp. (Cengia-Sambo 1937).

Appendix 2
Corrections to the erroneous Cladonia identifications by the Sambos (thanks to Luca Di Nuzzo):
“Cladonia amaurocraea” > Cladonia rangiformis
“Cladonia degenerans” [= C. phyllophora] > Cladonia rangiformis
“Cladonia endiviaefolia” [= C. foliacea f. convoluta] > Cladonia furcata
“Cladonia rangiformis” > Cladonia portentosa
“Cladonia squamosa” > Cladonia cervicornis
“Cladonia uncialis” > Cladonia rangiformis
After all of this mess, I wonder about the cited species of which no specimens were available in ECI…

Appendix 3
Cladonia taxa observed during the excursion of the XXXI meeting of the Italian Lichen Society (Munzi et al. 2019):
Cladonia coniocraea
Cladonia foliacea f. convoluta
Cladonia pyxidata
Cladonia rangiformis
Cladonia symphycarpa

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References
Cengia-Sambo M. 1937. Osservazioni lichenologiche sul gruppo del M. Ferrato. Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano n.s. 44: 295-311.
Favero-Longo S.E., Isocrono D., Piervittori R. 2004. Lichens and ultramafic rocks: a review. The Lichenologist 36 (6): 391-404.
Munzi S., Benesperi R., Bianchi E., Brackel W.v., Di Nuzzo L., Favero-Longo S.E., Gheza G., Giordani P., Matteucci E., Paoli L., Tonon C. 2019. Sulle orme dei Sambo – escursione del XXXI congresso della Società Lichenologica Italiana al Monteferrato. Notiziario della Società Lichenologica Italiana 32: 99-108.
Nimis P.L. 1993. The lichens of Italy: an annotated catalogue. Monografie XII. Torino, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino. 897 pp.
Sambo E. 1927. I licheni del M. Ferrato (Toscana). Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano n.s. 34: 333-358.

 

Hunting Cladonias: the Vivione Pass

During my lichenological explorations in the Val di Scalve valley (province of Bergamo, Lombardy) I visited several times one of its most beautiful localities: the Vivione Pass (Passo del Vivione), which connects the upper Val di Scalve with the upper Val Camonica (province of Brescia) by means of a breakneck road between Schilpario and Paisco Loveno.

The Pass is located in the southernmost outpost of the siliceous Orobic Alps, at the boundary with the calcareous Orobic Prealps. This is a land rich of traditions, legends and natural beauties; very hard not falling in love with it.

If you wish for an alpine atmosphere not too much difficult to reach, the Vivione Pass is the right place. The road is paved, and at the Pass a hut serves traditional mountain food (try the casoncelli, the typical Bergamasque ravioli flavoured with alm cheese).

Mountains, meadows, grazing cows, lively sheepdogs, sparkling breeze, clean air…and lichens, of course!

All the trails that start from the Vivione Pass are interesting for a lichenologist, but the first one I decided to try was the easiest one (you know, after a dish of casoncelli and a local schnapps…), that which brings to Malga Gaffione, on the other side of the glen formed by the stream coming down from the Valbona lake.

The surrounding landscape is stunning. The trail is very easy, and crosses an alpine pasture with scattered Rhododendron shrubs and larch trees.

And looking rigth under the shrubs at the edge of the trail…

…the first Cladonias start to appear!

Cladonia chlorophaea

Cladonia deformis

Cladonia coccifera

A nice bouquet of Cladonias, with Cladonia macroceras, Cladonia rangiferina and fertile podetia of Cladonia furcata

Cladonia arbuscula (right) and Cladonia rangiferina (left), the two most common and widespread Cladinas of the Alps

I was particularly happy to find out that one of those Cladonias was Cladonia grayi, a species of the former Cladonia chlorophaea complex (s. latiss.) characterized by grayanic acid, which had never been reported for Lombardy before (of course, I made up for this…[1]) and has a poorly known distribution in the whole of Italy.
Several podetia of it occurred right under Rhododendron shrubs on soil, together with other cup-shaped Cladonias.

Cladonia grayi

This is a wonderful place also for entomologists and macro-photographers: thank to the occurrence of a small alpine lake, a peat bog and wide alpine pastures, here you can find alpine dragonflies such as Somatochlora alpestris and Leucorrhinia dubia, and very beautiful and delicate high-altitude butterflies like Euphydryas glaciegenita, Coenonympha gardetta and Erebia pandrose.

Euphydryas glaciegenita ( = Euphydryas aurinia ssp glaciegenita)

Somatochlora alpestris

References

[1] Gheza G., Mayrhofer H. 2019. Cladonia grayi G.Merr. ex Sandst. (Cladoniaceae). In: Ravera S., Puglisi M., Vizzini A., Totti C., Aleffi M., Barberis G., Benesperi R., Brackel W.v., Dagnino D., De Giuseppe A.B., Fačkovcova Z., Gheza G., Giordani P., Guttova A., Mair P., Mayrhofer H., Nascimbene J., Nimis P.L., Paoli L., Passalacqua N.G., Pittao E., Poponessi S., Prosser F., Ottonello M., Puntillo D., Puntillo M., Sicoli G., Sguazzin F., Spitale D., Tratter W., Turcato C., Vallese C. 2019. Notulae to the Italian flora of Algae, Bryophytes, Fungi and Lichens 7. Italian Botanist 7: 69-91.

 

Welcome to Italy, Cladonia conista (and some corollaries)

Two Cladonias never found before in Italy have been discovered in one of the most human-impacted areas of the Country. Perhaps this should make us to think over the way in which not only lichens but all the biodiversity is [not enough] preserved in Italy…

The lichen flora of Italy earned two new species. In fact, while roaming the study sites for my PhD project, in the middle of the western Po Plain, I stumbled across two ‘unusual’ Cladonias which turned out to be two species never collected before in Italy: Cladonia conista and Cladonia pulvinata [1].

Cladonia conista in the morning light
Ticino River Natural Park

Cladonia conista belongs to a group of species which are extremely difficult to distinguish one from the other. This species complex was called in the past the “Cladonia chlorophaea complex”, but today we know that some of the species once placed there, albeit morphologically very similar, are not strictly related genetically with the proper “chlorophaea complex” [2]. However, I will call ‘chlorophaea complex s. lat.‘ all the ‘old group’ hereinafter.
The chlorophaea complex is a dobule issue: on one hand, all the species of this complex (s. lat.) are morphologically very similar, with greenish to greyish trumpet/goblet-shaped podetia; on the other hand, all these species have a huge morphological variability, and you can find podetia with very narrow and very broad cups within the same species – sometimes within the same lichen population in few square centimetres. In a nutshell: two equally large and visually identical cups could belong to different species as much as two very different cups could belong to the same species. Therefore, to identify those species, the study of secondary metabolites through thin-layer chromatography is always needed – and not always easy to interpret.
In Italy 7 species of che chlorophaea complex s. lat. have been recorded so far; but the problem is bigger, because many other species with cup-shaped podetia which occur in Italy can be very similar to these ones, especially when sterile; so we come to have nearly 20 species [2] that can be very difficult to distinguish from one another, especially for the beginners.
As you can image, the situation is quite intricate. The only revision of the chlorophaea complex s. lat. in Italy dates back to the mid 1980s [3], but surely since then much material which would need to be studied deeply has been collected.

A collage of four similar species with trumpet/goblet-shaped podetia:
C. conista, C. chlorophaea, C. fimbriata and C. pyxidata.
Now guess which one is which one!

The situation is less mazy in the “Cladonia cervicornis complex”, to which belongs Cladonia pulvinata. Among the three European species of the complex, C. pulvinata is the less prone to produce podetia, and in fact I found it only with the primary thallus so far.
When I saw it the first time I understood it was something new to me, but I had no clue about what I had under my nose. The strange squamules of C. pulvinata were mixed with podetia of C. coccifera, but luckily I had already enough experience with the latter to understand that they were two different things.
A TLC-interpretation session in Graz with professor Mayrhofer was fundamental to solve the mistery.

A nice patchwork of wet Cladonia pulvinata squamules and fertile C. coccifera podetia hidden under heather shrubs

Later on, I found that in that same site – a small but very beautiful heathland in the Ticino River Natural Park – occurred all the three species of the ‘cervicornis complex’ [4] – C. cervicornis, C. pulvinata and C. verticillata: such a mess! But luckily a very useful field key came in my rescue [5].

Cladonia pulvinata

I talked about Cladonias, but actually this post was not intended (only) as a mere announcement of the novelty of these two species to Italy, but also (and, perhaps, mainly) to highlight how this “discovery” can tell us at least three things which are extremely important at a general level:

1) Not all is lost! Who would have ever expected to come across two lichen species never found before in Italy precisely in the area that is the most human-impacted in Italy – the Po Plain – and, morever, a stone throw away from the main Northern-Italian airport and only few tens of kilometres from the centre of Milano!? Lichens are sensitive organisms, being very susceptible to pollution and environmental alterations caused by overly intensive human activities; consequently, this seems not exactly an optimal situation in which discover lichen species that sidestepped everyone so far.
Obviously, it must be said, these species do not occur everywhere: it is therefore of vital importance to preserve those habitats which still host them – in this particular case: acidic dry grasslands and open Calluna heathlands, which are in Europe habitats of community interest protected by the Habitats Directive (enlisted under the codes 6210 and 4030) and which are facing a dramatic decline in Italy [6].

2) These findings also tell us that there is still much work left to accomplish a full knowledge about Italian lichens. Just think over it: if we have two Cladonias new to Italy in the middle of the Po Plain, so what can there be in those still pristine remnants of Alps, of Appenines, of coasts!? In this perspective, the recent monumental checklist of Italian lichens is, as often said also by its author, not a point of arrival but a starting point.
But the issue is not limited to lichens: an oodles of other taxa that are – unluckily for them – not enough ‘mainstream’ in the scientific research are still waiting patiently someone who would study them more in deep, to allow a better and more realistic evaluation of the real overall biodiversity existing in Italy – a Country in which practically every year species new to science are still discovered and described [7].

3) The corollary which merges the two previous points is: how can we set conservation actions to safeguard what is left, if we don’t even know exactly what and how much there is left to conserve, which should be the basis of the whole thing!? It is right the time for Italy to actually begin to spend much more efforts to preserve the huge biodiversity it hosts; but in order to preserve it is necessary to manage, and in order to manage it is essential a basic knowledge about what and how to manage, that must be acquired appropriately through the work of trained (and appropriately paid) professional naturalists, and not at random and by blatantly taking advantage of the efforts by volunteers and enthusiasts.
It is a necessity that, now more than ever, is demanded loudly even by the so humble lichens.

A view of the “Brughiera di Gallarate” (Gallarate Heathland), which was extended for several square kilometres in the past, and is reduced nowadays to a fragment south of the Malpensa Airport.
How long will we be able to preserve such habitats – with all the biodiversity they host – within the most human-impacted area of Italy?

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Notes

[1] Gheza G., Nascimbene J., Mayrhofer H., Barcella M., Assini S. 2018. Two Cladonia species new to Italy from dry habitats in the Po Plain. Herzogia 31 (1): 293-303.

[2] The species of the ‘chlorophaea complex’ – intended in a broad sense – occurring in Italy are C. chlorophaea, C. cryptochlorophaea, C. merochlorophaea, C. grayi, C. humilis, C. perlomera and, now, C. conista. We can complicate the issue adding C. fimbriata, a very common and widespread species which (theoretically) has very narrow cups that (theoretically) should allow to distinguish it from C. chlorophaea s. lat. (theoretically). We can add also the problematic duo C. pyxidata–C. pocillum, with cup-shaped podetia as well, that can be distinguished thank to the absence of soredia and the presence of schizidia; but schizidia can be very variable. And we can add also the species of the “Cladonia coccifera complex”, that can be mistaken with the previous species when lacking the characteristic scarlet-red fruiting bodies. Not to mention the much rarer but equally similar and mistakable C. carneola, C. cyathomorpha, C. monomorpha…

[3] Coassini-Lokar L., Nimis P.L., Ciconi G. 1986. Chemistry and chorology of the Cladonia chlorophaea-pyxidata complex (Lichenes, Cladoniaceae) in Italy. Webbia 39 (2): 259-273.

[4] Gheza G. 2018. Addenda to the lichen flora of the Ticino river valley (western Po Plain). Natural History Sciences 5 (2): 33-40.

[5] Herk K.v., Aptroot A. 2003. A new status for the Western European taxa of the Cladonia cervicornis group. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 86: 193-203.

[6] Genovesi P., Angelini P., Bianchi E., Dupré E., Ercole S., Giacanelli V., Ronchi F., Stoch F. 2014. Specie e habitat di interesse comunitario in Italia: distribuzione, stato di conservazione e trend. Serie Rapporti 194/2014. ISPRA, Roma, 330 pp.

[7] Just think about the two most striking recent cases: Vipera walser (an adder endemic of a valley in the western Italian Alps) and Sciurus meridionalis (a black squirrel endemic of the southernmost Italy). The discovery of two Vertebrates (the most studied taxon) new to science in Europe (the most studied continent) in the XXI century has almost the taste of sci-fi…still, it really happened. And right in Italy.
Even if, it must be said, most of the new species recently discovered in Italy are of course small Invertebrates – generally belonging to overlooked Insect taxa studied only by few extremely specialized entomologists.

 

Hunting Cladonias: the Diga del Gleno trail

The “Diga del Gleno” (Gleno Dam) is sadly notorious for having been the first great dam disaster in Italy. In the early morning of 1st December 1923, the central part of the dam collapsed and the flood that came out ravaged the lower Val di Scalve valley to end its savage run in the Iseo Lake, after have overrun also a part of the lower Val Camonica. The victims were estimated to be between 360 and 400, and the real causes of this disaster are still somewhat unclear after 95 years.

The Gleno Dam at the end of its construction, in summer 1923.
It only lasted 4 months before the collapse of the central part.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

At present, the ruins of the dam are the destination of an easy and very panoramic trail that starts in Pianezza, a hamlet of Vilminore di Scalve, which is one of the four municipalities that constitute the Val di Scalve, a small valley lateral to the lower Val Camonica which belongs to the province of Bergamo and covers an area ranging from the calcareous Orobic Prealps to the crystalline Orobic Alps.
I went across this trail only once before, when I was just a little boy, almost twenty years ago, so I decided to go back there, the last weekend, to explore this promising area under a lichenological perspective…and I wasn’t disapponted!

A panoramic view on the easternmost Orobic Prealps from the very first part of the trail, just above Pianezza. The view ranges from the Pizzo Camino, on the far left, to the towering massif of the Mount Presolana, the “Queen of the Orobies”, on the central-right part.

The trail, marked with n.411, starts behind the little church of Pianezza, at 1267 m a.s.l., and at the beginning you have to climb some stone steps in a picturesque narrow alley, with the impression that the trail is driving you into some mountaineer’s backyard rather than on the mountains. But soon you pop out in the meadows overhanging the village, and the view is already spectacular.

The Pizzo Camino Group.

The Presolana.

After a short but steep stairway of earth and stone, the trail dives into a shady and cool spruce wood. Here the Cladonias at the edge of the footpath are not particularly interesting, and mostly reduced to mats of squamules of Cladonia coniocraea, Cladonia pyxidata and Cladonia caespiticia. Also some podetia of the very common Cladonia furcata appear here and there among the mosses.

After some uphill (we are now at about 1450 m of altitude), the wood thins and some larches and mountain pines appear. In some clearings near the trail, in the best-exposed positions, a dry heath vegetation with Molinia, Vaccinium sp. pl. and Erica carnea is developed (we are on a south-facing slope), and, where acidic rock outcrops and mineral soil occur, some other Cladonias peep out.

Some Cladonias from the aforementioned heath-like vegetation.
I’m afraid I would need TLC…

Then, at the very edge of the trail, a handful of tiny red points catches my attention. I climb on the raised edge of the footpath and – carefully avoiding to trample all the lichens I have just spotted – I lay down to watch and photograph a lilliputian grove of fertile Cladonia floerkeana podetia. In the nearest surroundings, a proper heath lichen vegetation is developed, with Cladonia coccifera, Cladonia pleurota, Cladonia chlorophaea s. latiss. and florid cushions of Cladonia rangiferina.

Cladonia floerkeana

Lichen vegetation dominated by Cladonia pleurota and Cladonia floerkeana

Cladonia rangiferina

A little further on, the trail becomes almost flat and the wood opens at the incoming of rocky walls overhanging on the footpath, which is in some points carved directly inside the rock.
Here the rock is siliceous, and probably acidic. In many points beneath the rock vault there is a copious water drip (after all, at this altitude we are still in the thaw season), and the topsoil in the rock crevices and some mosses are covered with scabrous squamulose podetia of a strange Cladonia which is probably Cladonia squamosa (but I still have to check it carefully). It covers quite wide extensions in humid and sheltered positions in this particular bryophyte-rich microhabitat.

The dipping rock vault above this part of the trail. Here the view is increasingly spectacular and not recommended for those suffering from vertigo, since the trail overhangs the narrow and steep glen of the Povo stream.

Cladonia cf. squamosa.

Even further ahead, in a more enlightened position, some other Cladonias appear on the dipping rock walls, and – big surprise! – also some small thalli of Sphaerophorus fragilis claim their part of my attention for some photos.

Squamules, rachitic podetia and reddish apothecia.

Sphaerophorus fragilis.

After a little more walking and a dizzy ford – one could ask why on Earth almost all the trail is flanked by parapets…except in the point where it is most needed!? – the majestic ruins of the dam appear on the other side of the glen, announcing that the arrival is near.

The ruins of the Gleno Dam.

There, even with my scarce knowledge of geology, I notice that the rock type has changed. Mainly thank to the almost completely different lichen flora on it – for example, Dermatocarpon has replaced Umbilicaria while Rhizocarpon geographicum disappeared and Rusavskia elegans appeared – but also thank to colour and texture of the rock.
This seems to be a calcareous rock, and in fact, when I am almost arrived at the dam, I notice the typical rosulate thalli of Cladonia pocillum, a typically calcicole species, on the mosses and the rocky debris in the crevices of the rock.

A manual case of Cladonia pocillum, with rosulate primary thallus and schizidiate podetia.

I have the time for a fast snack on the shore of the cold alpine lake delimited by the survived lower part of the dam (1534 m a.s.l.), under the massive arches of the upper part, before went back to Pianezza.
Snow still hinders to venture much beyond here on the trail which drives to Mount Gleno: I will leave it for this summer…

Photographing Cladonias.
In the distant background, the Queen spires, still covered with snow.