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Ramalina americana Hale
Sinewed Strap
Federal Protection: No US federal protection
State Protection: No Georgia state protection
Global Rank: G5
State Rank: SNR
Element Locations Tracked in Biotics: No
SWAP 2015 Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN): No
SWAP 2025 Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN): No
2025 SGCN Priority Tier: None
Element Occurrences (EOs) in Georgia: 0
Habitat Summary for element in Georgia: Montane hardwood forest
Pale green shrubby thallus up to 3 cm high; flattened branches about 0.5-3 mm wide, ridged & sinewy, usually dotted with white pseudocyphellae; pale apothecia, often pink-pruinose, at or near branch tips; FIELD ID: forms a complex with Ramalina culbersoniorum, the 2 species identical in appearance, differing chemically (this species has no secondary metabolites); it is probably safe to assume that specimens from the central & southern Piedmont south are R. culbersoniorum, but that anything in the northern Piedmont, Ridge & Valley, Cumberland Plateau or Southern Blue Ridge could be either
Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is required to distinguish between this and Ramalina culbersoniorum (of 17 specimens in NY Botanical Garden herbarium tested with TLC, 16 are R. culbersoniorum & 1 is R. americana); R. complanata is similar but tends to be larger with wider branches & has whitish warts or tubercles along margins & on surface of branches
None
Montane hardwood forest, on hardwood bark
Corticolous fruticose lichenized fungus, photobiont a green alga (Trebouxia?)
None
Southern Blue Ridge
Unknown
R. americana is probably rare & restricted to the Southern Blue Ridge (& possible elsewhere in north Ga.?), but almost certainly more frequent than single chemically confirmed specimen indicates
None
Brodo, I. M. 2001. Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
Brodo, I. M. 2016. Keys to lichens of North America: revised and expanded. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
Esslinger, T. L. 2021. A cumulative checklist for the lichen-forming, lichenicolous and allied fungi of the continental United States and Canada. Version 24. Opuscula Philolichenum 20: 100-394.
LaGreca, S. 1999. A phylogenetic evaluation of the Ramalina americana chemotype complex (Lichenized Ascomycota, Ramalinaceae) based on rDNA ITS sequence data. Bryologist 102: 602-618.
Malcolm Hodges
June 8, 2022