Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Ser. B, 44(1), pp. 1–6, February 22, 2018

Increase of Thysanothecium scutellatum(Cladoniaceae, Ascomycota) in Japan
Yoshihito Ohmura1, *, Momoka Chaki2, Shunji Takeshita3, Mieko Kono4,
Shuichi Kurogi5 and Hiroyuki Kashiwadani1
1

Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science,
Amakubo 4–1–1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305–0005, Japan
2
Hope Pharmacy Ltd., Ujinakanda 1–1–18, Hiroshima 734–0004, Japan3
Department of Science Education, Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University,Kagamiyama 1–1–1, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima 739–8524, Japan
4
Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University forAdvanced Studies), Shonan Village, Hayama, Kanagawa 240–0193, Japan
5
Miyazaki Prefectural Museum of Nature and History,
Jingu 2–4–4, Miyazaki-city, Miyazaki 880–0053, Japan* E-mail: ohmura-y@kahaku.go.jp(Received 8 December 2017; accepted 20 December 2017)

Abstract Thysanothecium scutellatum is documented to be widely distributed from central towestern Japan. In addition, ﬁeld investigations in Miyajima-town on Miyajima Island, Hiroshima
Prefecture, suggest that populations have increased in size when compared to the past. Althoughcategorized as “Near Threatened (NT)” in the Red-list 2017 issued by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, the current stable situation of the species with a wide distribution and increased
populations suggest that this rank is no longer appropriate.
Key words: air pollution, lichen, red-list, sulfur dioxide, threatened species.

Introduction
Thysanothecium scutellatum (Fr.) D.J.Galloway
belongs to the lichen family Cladoniaceae (Ascomycota). The diagnostic features of this speciesare 1) granular to squamulose or coralloid primary crustose thallus with whitish or pale green
to green-yellow color, 2) swollen pseudopodetia(up to 10 mm high) with conspicuous grooves
and corticate granules, and 3) the presence ofdivaricatic acid as a major lichen substance. It is
distributed in Oceania, Southeast Asia, and EastAsia (Galloway and Barlett, 1982; Wei et al.,
1994; Kashiwadani, 2008). In Japan, it has beenfound from central to western Honshu, Shikoku
and Kyushu where it grows on barks of
Chamaecyparis obtusa, Cryptomeria japonica,Cycas revoluta, Pinus densiﬂora, P. thunbergii,Washingtonia ﬁlifera, plant debris on rocks andon decayed stumps at an elevational range of 5 to700 meters (Asahina, 1956; Okamoto and Iwatsuki, 1992; Kurokawa and Kashiwadani, 1988;
Kashiwadani, 1998, 2008; Okamoto, 2010; Haraet al., 2011; Ohmura, 2011; Komine et al., 2012;
Kawakami et al., 2014, 2015, 2016; Yamamotoet al., 2016, 2017). In the past, the species has
generally be considered rare and thus treated in
the Red-list issued by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (Environmental Agency ofJapan, 2000; Ministry of the Environment,2014). It was categorized as “Vulnerable (VU)”
at ﬁrst because only ﬁve localities were known.
Later, the results of several ﬁeld investigations
conﬁrmed that the known extant populations

Yoshihito Ohmura et al.

2were stable, and the red-list rank was revised andchanged into “Near Threatened (NT)” which does
not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable now but is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future following the IUCN
(2001).
During the course of ﬁeld investigations ofthreatened lichens in Japan, coupled with examination of herbarium specimens housed in theNational Museum of Nature and Science (TNS),
we obtained additional voucher specimens from
13 new localities. In addition, the existence ofthe species at 46 localities was also visually conﬁrmed without collection within Miyajima-town,Miyajima Island, Hiroshima Prefecture. Here we
provide an updated distribution map ofThysanothecium scutellatum and discuss its conservation status in light of the new records.
Materials and Methods
Field investigations were carried out by thefollowing two methods: (1) investigation withvoucher specimens collected from 1995 to 2017
in Japan by the authors and (2) investigation via
photography and mapping without collection
within Miyajima-town, Miyajima Island, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan from 30 January to 8
October 2017 by the second author (M. C.).
Identiﬁcations were made based on morphological study using the naked eye or a 10× hand lensin the ﬁeld. The presence of divaricatic acid wasconﬁrmed in all voucher specimens examined bymeans of a microcrystal test (Asahina, 1936–1940) or thin layer chromatography with solvent
B (Culberson and Kristinsson, 1970; Culbersonand Johnson, 1982). All vouchers examined arehoused in TNS otherwise indicated.
Results and Discussion
The distribution of Thysanothecium scutellatumin Japan ranges from central to western Honshu,
Shikoku and Kyushu. Prior to 2011
Thysanothecium scutellatum was known in Japan

from only nine localities (Hara et al., 2011;Ohmura, 2011). A total of 79 localities were documented by this study in addition to earlier published reports (Asahina, 1956; Okamoto andIwatsuki, 1992; Kurokawa and Kashiwadani,1988; Kashiwadani, 1998, 2008; Okamoto, 2010;
Hara et al., 2011; Ohmura, 2011; Komine et al.,2012; Kawakami et al., 2014, 2015, 2016; Yamamoto et al., 2016, 2017) (Fig. 1). It should be
noted that one locality for Tada Shrine,
Kawanishi-city, Hyogo Prefecture (N34°51′40″,E135°24′10″) was destroyed as the habitat andthe colonies disappeared with the substrate tree
(Environment Agency of Japan, 2000). The species was frequently found growing on the trunks
or stumps of acidic trees such as Cryptomeria
japonica, Pinus thunbergii and Washingtonia
ﬁlifera in open and sunny places.
The newly reported occurrences ofThysanothecium scutellatum may have resulted
from two possible reasons: (1) the former investigations were insufﬁcient or incomplete, and/or(2) the environmental condition of the habitat has
improved from the past and the population ascorrespondingly increased in frequency andabundance. In fact, some of the occurrences
reported here were already documented byherbarium records that had simply not beenformally published. Concurrently evidence of
locally abundant populations (Kurokawa andKashiwadani, 1988; Kashiwadani, 1998, 2008)
can serve as a guide to ﬁnd other nearby populations (Komine et al., 2012; Kawakami et al.,2014, 2015, 2016; Yamamoto et al., 2016, 2017),
and basically says using known populations tosearch for new populations has proven to beeffective (Bowering et al., 2018).
In contrast, improvement of environmental
conditions may also have faciliated successful
colonization and establishment of the species.
Several former and current investigations in
Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, western Japan, haveshown apparent increases of the species on theisland. For instance, Nakanishi et al. (1975)
reported on the the lichen ﬂora of Miyajima
Island (43 genera 131 species) but did not reportIncrease of Thysanothecium scutellatum

3Fig. 1. Distribution of Thysanothecium scutellatum in Japan. ★: known localities, ●: new localities withvoucher specimens, ○: new localities without voucher specimens. A. Whole map. B. Close-up map of box “1”in the whole map. C. Close-up map of box “2” in the whole map.

Thysanothecium scutellatum. In 1993, the ﬁrst
author (Y. O.) found one population only on asingle tree on the island. In 2010, many colonies
were found distributed across more than eightlocations within the island. At present in 2017, atotal of 53 localities (46 localities were only
visually conﬁrmed) was found on tree trunks andstumps of Pinus spp. and rarely Pieris japonica.
Even if the potential for earlier authors to haveoverlooked the species is taken into consideration, this documented increase is distinct. The
increase could be related to improvement ofenvironmental condition for the species from thepast as lichens are well-known sensitive bioindicators for air pollution especially against sulfur
dioxide and also known to recolonize into theformerly polluted area when the air quality hasbeen improved (Rose and Hawksworth, 1981;

4

Yoshihito Ohmura et al.

Hawksworth and McManus, 1989; Munzi et al.,2007; Ohmura et al., 2008, 2014). Before 1974,
the vegetation of this island was seriously damaged by air pollution of sulfur dioxide and thousands of pine trees died and were cut down atthat time (Nakanishi et al. 1975) but the current
air quality has dramatically improved. Annual
average of sulfur dioxide was 0.022 ppm in 1973
and it was 0.002 ppm in 2013 at the air pollution
monitoring station located ca. 12 km SW of
Miyajima-town (Ohtake City 2015).
As shown here, the population of
Thysanothecium scutellatum in Japan is widelydistributed geographically, locally abundant, andgrowth is stable at present. Therefore, we suggestthat it is not threatened according to the categories in the Red-list 2017 issued by the Ministryof the Environment of Japan (Ministry of theEnvironment, 2017).
Specimens examined for the new localities(indicated as “●” in Fig. 1). JAPAN. Honshu.
Prov. Tohtomi (Pref. Shizuoka): Obata, Misakubocho, Iwata-gun (N35°09′57″, E137°52′28″), on
bark of Cryptomeria japonica, c. 200 m elev., 22January 1995, H. Kashiwadani 38068; Mt.
Akiha, Haruno-cho, Tenryu-ku, Hamamatsu-city(N34°58′47″, E137°51′44″), on bark of
Cryptomeria japonica, 810 m elev., 22 November
2010, Y. Ohmura 7753; ditto (N34°58′50″,E137°51′48″), on bark of Cryptomeria japonica,835 m elev., Y. Ohmura 7754; Shimosha, Nishiryoke, Haruno-cho, Shuchi-gun (N34°57′14″,E137°52′54″), on bark of Cryptomeria japonica,c. 100 m elev., 24 January 1995, H. Kashiwadani
38047, 38064; ditto, on bark of Zelkova serrata,
21 January 1995, H. Kashiwadani 38071. Prov.
Kii (Pref. Wakayama): Hongu, Hongu-cho,Tanabe-city (N33°50′19″, E135°46′27″), on barkof Cryptomeria japonica, c. 80 m elev., H.
Kashiwadani 50559. Prov. Aki (Pref. Hiroshima):
Nishimatsubara, Miyajima Island, Hatsukaichicity (N34°17′46″, E132°19′04″), on bark ofPinus thunbergii, 2 m elev., 12 January 2010, M.
Kono et al. 1; ditto, 14 January 2010, M. Kono
129, 130, 132 & Y. Ohmura; Omoto Park,Miyajima Island, Hatsukaichi-city (N34°17′42″,E132°18′55″), on stump, 7 m elev., 12 January
2010, M. Kono et al. 2; ditto, on bark of
Pinus thunbergii, 14 m elev., 14 January 2010,
M. Kono 144 & Y. Ohmura; Mt. Misen,
Miyajima Island, Hatsukaichi-city (N34°16′47″,E132°19′02″), on bark of decayed Pinus sp.,
429 m elev., 12 January 2010, M. Kono et al. 67;
Uguisu Path, Miyajima Island, Hatsukaichi-city(N34°18′02″, E132°19′36″), on bark of Pieris
japonica, c. 50 m elev., 20 August 2017, M.
Chaki 14; ditto, on bark of Pinus thunbergii, M.
Chaki 15; Mt. Takanojyo, Hiroshima-city(N34°26′26″, E132°32′56″), on stump of Pinus
densiﬂora, 410 m elev., 16 April 2017, Y.
Ohmura 11264. Shikoku. Prov. Awa (Pref.
Tokushima): Shimomiya Shrine, Nakano, Tsurugi-cho, Mima-gun (N33°54′49″, E134°04′01″),
on bark of Cryptomeria japonica, c. 400 m elev.,
25 October 2011, S. Takeshita et al. 111025.
Kyushu. Prov. Hyuga (Pref. Miyazaki): Miyazaki
Ohmiya High school, Jingu, Miyazaki-city(N31°56′00″, E131°25′30″), on bark of Washingtonia ﬁlifera, 8 m elev., 8 December 2017, S.
Kurogi s.n. (herb. of Miyazaki Prefectural
Museum of Nature and History; TNS); Heiwadai
Park,
Shimokitakata-machi,
Miyazaki-city(N31°56′58″, E131°24′53″), on bark of Washingtonia ﬁlifera, 30 m elev., 3 December 2017, S.
Kurogi s.n. (herb. of Miyazaki PrefecturalMuseum of Nature and History; TNS); Hyuga
San Park, Tohmi, Hyuga-city (N32°20′33″,E131°37′27″), on bark of Washingtonia ﬁlifera,
20 m elev., 28 November 2017, S. Kurogi s.n.
(herb. of Miyazaki Prefectural Museum ofNature and History; TNS).
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. T. Seki, Hiroshima University,
for the advice of investigation in Miyajima
Island; and an anonymous reviewer for the critical reading of this manuscript. This study waspartly conducted under the red-list project organized by the Ministry of the Environment.

Increase of Thysanothecium scutellatum

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