Collecting Cladoniae on Martha's Vineyard 

 and Nantucket Islands 



Raymond H. TuKKiiv 



Much of my early collecting of lichens of the large and 

 fascinating genus of Cladonia was done on Long Island, where 

 I live. Although the western end of the Island, in Brooklyn and 

 Queens, New York City, and Nassau County, is intensively 

 developed, and areas where lichens survive are scarce, the 

 eastern half, in Suffolk County, includes many areas of pine 

 and oak barrens, abandoned fields and pastures, seashore dunes 

 and backbeach strips, and open moorland such as on Montauk 

 Point, which are richly rewarding to the student of Cladoniae. 



A few years of collecting, principally in Suffolk County, 

 yielded a comprehensive acquaintance with the species and 

 forms of the genus. The associations of species on the richer 

 soils, on the northern, or Harbor Hill Moraine, were much like 

 those in the hardwood forests in the highlands of southeastern 

 New York and northern New Jersey. But in sandy soils, along 

 the beaches, on the southern, or Ronkonkoma Moraine, or an- 

 cient dune areas in the interior, the associations were domi- 

 nated by the larger, densely branching members of the sub- 

 genus Cladina, such as C. mitis, rangiferina, sylvatica and 

 tenuis; and by species in the sub-section Unciales, such as C. 

 Boryi and C. caroliniana. C. Boryi was particularly interesting, 

 for its robust character, and often large, nearly exclusive 

 colonies, and my acquaintance with it, first made on Long 

 Island, led to pursuit of other stations along the coast from 

 New Jersey to Cape Cod and I hope some time to pursue it to 

 its northernmost stations, in Newfoundland and Labrador. It 

 seems to be a characteristically eastern North American sea- 

 coast species, most abundant close to the ocean, although it has 

 been found in a few stations, farther from the coast in Maine. 

 It does not occur in Europe, although species have been reported 

 from Japan and the Himalayas in India, according to Tucker- 

 man. 



Another interesting discovery in Long Island was Cladonia 

 floridana, which had been regarded as southern, until S. F. 

 Blake found it in Maryland, several years ago, and C. A. Rob- 

 bins found it in Wareham, Mass. Within the past few years I 

 have found it in several stations in southern New Jersey and 



67 



