FUNGI , BRYOPHYTES & LICHENS

Help needed with this page! If anyone with fungi or lichen knowledge can properly identify the photographed species/ fill in/ correct areas of this page accurately, please contact falklands.southatlantic@gmail.com and I will acknowledge your work.

Poorly studied, there was little fieldwork and recording of fungi before the 1980s when Tom (and Megan) Eggeling moved to the islands as an environmental planner and did a huge amount of work surveying for fungi across the islands and collecting samples. In the 1990's Leo Janlink and Marijke Nauta began collecting and adding fungi to the Falkland Island list. Falklands Conservation says that 350 fungi have been recorded in the islands and the number is likely to be far higher.

Many species, particularly some of the coprophilous (dung loving fungi) have been introduced to the islands along with livestock, trees and shrubs, and are common to North America and Europe, some are also found in South America, and a few are cold climate species. However, some are probably native to areas and other endemic species are probably confined to a limited number of genera including Marasmius, Mycena and Omphalina (Watling 2000).

Bryophtes are non- vascular land plants, the three groups included being liverworts, hornworts and mosses. They are characteristically small and although they like moisture can grow where vascular plants cannot as they do not depend on roots or soil nutrients and survive on bare soil and rocks. In Falklands Conservation magazine May 2016, Dafydd Crabtree says there are 750 types of native bryophytes and lichens recorded in the islands, they play an important role in the Falklands' ecosystem, in peat and soil formation, water and nutrient cycling, retaining moisture to prevent erosion and carbon storage.