Cladonia species and Cladonia Stellaris Identification,Economic importance and Phytochemicals,a wonderful thing more than fodder for reindeer.
Article Content:
- .Cladonia species and Cladonia Stellaris Identification.
- .Cladonia Stellaris Description and Habitat.
- .Distribution and ecology:Cladonia Stellaris.
- .History and Synoms Record of Cladonia stellaris.
- .Cladonia Stellaris Economic importance and Uses.
- .Phytochemicals of Cladonia stellaris.
- .Cladonia stellaris:Research Update.
Cladonia Stellaris Description and Habitat.
Podetia up to 8 cm, yellowish-green, richely branched, mainly trichotomous (branches orientated in all directions, isolated specimen resembling to little trees), yellowish-green to grey-green, dying at base, not sorediate, not corticate.
Slow-growing, long-lived, densely branched ground lichens with short numerous outer branchelets. These lichens often form clumps or mats composed of a large number of podetia. The podetia are slender, elongated, and branched in whorls. They are often densely intertangled in large colonies. The slender thalli of Cladonia rangiferina are hollow stems of very low density which are finely branched and not only have a high surface to volume ratio, but also have branches advantageously distributed to carry fire.
Habitat: Typically occur in submontane to alpine environments. They are scattered to plentiful in the open or in open-canopy forest and tundra on well-drained, water-shedding sites with shallow and/or coarse-skeletal soils. In these environments they often occur on soil and sometimes on rocks, stumps, and logs.
Cladonia arbuscula and C. mitis are the most competitive reindeer lichens on rock. Northern boreal forests offer climatically optimal conditions for reindeer lichen growth largely because of slow plant succession and little competition from other plant forms. Dry reindeer lichen woodlands and lichen bogs are characteristic throughout the northern boreal forest belt.
Cladonia rangiferina has a wider ecological amplitude than other reindeer lichens and is thus more common than the others in less favorable habitats such as wet bogs and shaded woods. It is very common all over northern Ontario, being the most widely distributed ground lichen in the area. Even in the Cladonia alpestris stands of the northern boreal forest it is considerably more plentiful than C. mitis or C. arbuscula.
Cladonia arbuscula prefers a moister and more shaded habitat than most reindeer lichens but is frequently found mixed with C. mitis.
C. mitis is commonly one of the dominants on rocks, in lichen woodlands, and on dry bog hummocks.
Soils and climate: Reindeer lichens commonly occur on moist to very dry, sandy, nitrogen-poor soils on shallow humus layers or dry peat. They are adapted to a cool, moist climate. High relative humidity is especially important for reindeer lichens.
Most reindeer lichens avoid calcareous soils and prefer the acid humus of podzolic soils during germination. Reindeer lichens have been found on sites with pH values ranging between 4.5 and 5.5.
Since reindeer lichens are able to take up moisture from the air, the underlying soil is not as important a source of moisture as it is to vascular plants. Reindeer lichens, therefore, can colonize and become a dominant floral element on soils too shallow or sterile to support higher plants, provided that humidity is sufficently high for lichen growth and temperature is sufficently low to inhibit competitors.
Shade intolerant. Cladonia mitis is an early to mid-seral species, while C. alpestris, C. arbuscula, and C. rangiferina are late-seral to climax species.
C. mitis generally the first reindeer lichen to become established in postfire white spruce and black spruce stands. It dominates for 30 to 40 years and is then replaced by others such as C. alpestris and C. rangiferia.
If the canopy becomes closed, reindeer lichens are generally replaced by shade tolerant mosses such as Mountain Fern Moss (Hylocomium splendens) and Schreber's Feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi).
Reindeer lichens commonly occur as the dominant or codominant ground cover on open sites dominanted by White Spruce (Picea glauca), Black Spruce (Picea mariana), Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera), or Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana).
Reference:
1.Cladonia species and Cladonia Stellaris Identification,Economic importance and Phytochemicals,a wonderful thing more than fodder for reindeer.
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