Sticta limbata Powdered Moon Lichen

Sticta limbata is an Atlantic lichen with a distinct western distribution in Britain and Ireland. It has been decreasing in Britain and it is very local in West Glamorgan, where it occurs on mossy ash and willow trees along the banks of the River Afan in Neath Port Talbot. The pale grey-brown thallus (more brown when wet) with rolled edges covered with granular soredia give it a very distictive appearance. Like other Sticta species it has a strong fishy smell but it is the only one with soredia on the margins of its thallus. Its occurrence in the Afan Valley is notable and indicative of a significant recovery of Atlantic, temperate rainforest conditions there in recent decades.

Listed by Alan Orange in Flora of Glamorgan (Wade et al, 1994).