Prescribed fire is a common tool in the maintenance of natural landscapes and high diversity in Florida scrubs, plant communities well known for supporting many fire adapted endemic plants and animals. However, the role of fire in these lichen communities has not been studied. Cladonia perforata, an endangered terrestrial lichen, co-occurs with several other congeners on bare sand of endemic-rich rosemary scrub. A prescribed fire at Archbold Biological Station on the southern end of the Lake Wales Ridge impacted three separate populations of C. perforata in July 1993, leaving only remnant unburned patches scattered among completely burned areas. I investigated the rate and mode of post-fire recovery of C. perforata in comparison with co-occurring common species in order to inform management decisions consistent with maintenance of these lichen populations. Detailed GPS maps of individual patches of this lichen were made in January 1997 and compared with those made in August 1999. Abundance of all lichen species was monitored yearly during the winters of 1997-1999. Although all of the other terrestrial species in the same habitat recovered from juvenile stages, no juvenile forms of C. perforata were recorded. The area occupied by C. perforata increased by more than 200% on average, over the three sites. However, population growth (abundance measures for all species) is so far too slow to have documented and did not change markedly over this interval. Therefore, dispersal of unburned C. perforata into burned areas may be the primary method of short-term population recovery.

Key words: Cladonia perforata, Florida scrub, lichen, post-fire recovery, recolonization