Biatora helvola is a corticolous crustose lichen occurring in boreal and montane spruce and spruce-fir-beech forests. After the last glaciation, spruce reinvaded Europe from three refugia situated in the Carpathians, southeastern parts of the Alps and the Ural Mts., resulting in a slightly disjunct distribution. Our aim was to find out whether the glacial fragmentation of the distributional area of spruce is reflected by genetic differences in a typical spruce-forest lichen. Collections of Biatora helvola from Scandinavia and various parts of Central Europe were investigated using RAPD analysis. Algal free periclinal sections of the apothecia were obtained using a freezing microtome and transferred directly into PCR tubes. Six different RAPD primers were used. The data were analysed using PAUP*. It was shown that genetic differences between samples of B. helvola reflect the glacial disjunction of spruce in Europe.

Logging in Tasmania's wet eucalypt forests has traditionally been based on a clearfell, burn and sow regime, a process that has become increasingly controversial in recent years. The managing authority for these forests, Forestry Tasmania, has designed a Silvicultural Systems Trial in Tasmania's Southern Forests to explore alternative methods for harvesting and regenerating eucalypts. One of the components of this Trial is a study of lichens and bryophytes. Pre-logging surveys revealed a diverse flora comprising 134 lichen and 144 bryophyte taxa. Logging and regeneration produces a suite of new microhabitats for colonization by lichens and bryophytes. After three years, 51 lichens have been recorded in the plots. Twenty-eight were recorded in the unlogged forest, and represent recolonizers; lichen survivors after logging and regeneration treatment are very few. The remaining 23 lichens represent some transient weedy species as well as some that are typical of more open, drier conditions. A feature of the post-logging flora is the high proportion of species also found in the Northern Hemisphere. Re-establishment of the pre-logging flora is limited by habitat and will depend on the re-establishment of pre-logging habitats such as mature dominant trees and understorey trees and shrubs.

Stigmidium cartilagineae Calatayud &Triebel (on the apothecial discs of Squamarina cartilaginea), a lichenicolous fungus belonging to Stigmidium s. str., is described as new. Two other species of Stigmidium s. 1. with a net of branched and anastomosing, rudimentary interascal filaments are also described as new to science: Stigmidium rouxianum Calatayud & Triebel (on Acarospora cervina) and S. squamarinicola Calatayud & Triebel (on the thallus of Squamarina spp.). They are related to Stigmidium psorae and treated here as ‘Stigmidium’ psorae group. To facilitate discussion of the distinguishing features of this group, a table comparing the terms referring to hamathecial hyphae in pyrenocarpous ascomycetes is presented.

A revision of the Lecanora saligna-group is provided, based on specimens mainly from western and central Europe. Four new Lecanora species related to L. saligna are described: L. calabrica, L. coppinsii, L. pseudosarcopidoides and L. subsaligna, as well as a new variety, L. albellula var. macroconidiata. The species treated have in common relatively short and ± curved or bacilliform conidia and/or isousnic acid as a secondary metabolite. Species without isousnic acid, containing exclusively filiform conidia are excluded. Notes on various types of conidia (macroconidia, microconidia, mesoconidia and leptoconidia), morphology, ecology, chemistry and distribution are given and a key to the treated species is provided. Detailed descriptions are presented for eight related species in order to highlight the distinguishing characters.

Clathroporina Müll. Arg. (1882), a genus of muriform-spored, pyrenocarpous lichens, is considered to be synonymous with Porina Müll. Arg. nom. cons. (1883). In order to avoid nomenclatural chaos, a proposal should be made to add it to the list of rejected names for Porina. Meanwhile, the following species are recognized: C. biroi Szatala, C. eminentior (NyL) Müll. Arg., C. exocha (Nyl.) Müll. Arg. and C. nuculastrum Müll. Arg. The following new combinations are effected: Aspidothelium cuyabense (Malme) P. M. McCarthy (Thelenella cuyabensis Malme), C. eminentior f. sorediifera (Müll. Arg.) P. M. McCarthy (C. desquamans f. sorediifera Müll. Arg), Laurera straminea (Malme) P. M. McCarthy (T. straminea Malme) and P. tahitensis (Räsänen) P. M. McCarthy (T. tahitensis Räsänen). The name P. farinose Knight is available for C. farinose (Knight) Müll. Arg. and P. grandispora sp. nov. is described from SE China. Fifteen species of Clathroporina and Thelenella sect. Clathroporina are referred to genera outside the Trichotheliaceae.

Photobiont diversity within populations of Xanthoria parietina was studied at the species level by means of ITS analyses and at the subspecific level with fingerprinting techniques (RAPD-PCR) applied to sterile cultured algal isolates. Populations from coastal, rural and urban sites from NW, SW and central France and from NE Switzerland were investigated. Between 8 and 63 samples per population, altogether 150 isolates, were subjected to phenetic and ordination analyses. Epiphytic samples of X. parietina associated with different genotypes of Trebouxia decolorans but saxicolous samples contained T. arboricola. For comparison the T. gelatinosa photobiont of a small population of Teloschistes chrysophthalmus (4 samples) was investigated. ITS sequences of T. decolorans isolates from different geographic locations were largely similar. In all populations a surprisingly high diversity of genotypes was observed in Trebouxia isolated from lichen thalli growing side by side. As Trebouxia spp. are assumed to be asexually reproducing haplonts, the genetic background of this diversity is discussed. Fingerprinting techniques are a powerful tool for obtaining valuable insights into the genetic diversity within the algal partner of lichen-forming fungi at the population level, provided that sterile cultured isolates are available.

Thirty-one taxa of Gyalideopsis and its recent segregates (Ferraroa, Jamesiella, Lithogyalideopsis) are reported in a first assessment of the group from Costa Rica. Six species are described as new, all originating from perhumid montane rainforest: Gyalideopsis altamirensis Lücking & Umaña, with broadly sessile, brown apothecia and single-spored asci with muriform ascospores (hyphophores unknown); G. macarthurii Lücking, Umaña & Aptroot, with dark greyish brown apothecia having their margin covered by triangular thalline lobules and shortly bristle-shaped hyphophores producing moniliform diahyphae; G. pseudoactinoplaca Lücking & Chaves, with sessile, globose diahyphal bunches similar to those of Actinoplaca and resembling isidia (apothecia unknown), G. wesselsii Lücking, Sipman & Chaves, with verrucose thallus, dark greyish brown, applanate apothecia with single-spored asci producing muriform ascospores, and minutely spathulate, dark brown hyphophores with moniliform diahyphae, and Jamesiella chaverriae Chaves, Umaña & Lücking, with isidioid hyphophores (‘thlasidia’) which are flask-shaped and apically thinly ciliate (apothecia unknown). A further species, Gyalideopsis sp., with distinctly stipitate, umbelliform hyphophores, is not formally described due to the lack of apothecia and hyphophores. A further nine species are reported as new to Costa Rica: G. buckei, G. capitata, G. confluens, G. giganteoides, G. megalospora, G. napoensis, G. nepalensis, G. palmata, and Lithogyalideopsis zeylandica. A world-wide key to all presently known 94 taxa of Gyalideopsis and its recent segregates is presented, as well as a checklist.

Based on separately obtained and analyzed molecular data and within the framework of a global revision of the family Trypetheliaceae, 21 new species are described, from the Neotropics and tropical Asia, in the genera Architrypethelium (1), Astrothelium (15), Bathelium (1), Nigrovothelium (1), Trypethelium (1), and Viridothelium (2), namely: Architrypethelium lauropaluanum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Marcelli sp. nov., differing from A. hyalinum in the perithecia immersed between coarse thallus verrucae and in the additional ascospore septa; Astrothelium aurantiacocinereum Lücking, Naksuwankul & Lumbsch sp. nov., differing from A. aeneum in the prominent, well-delimited, trypethelioid pseudostromata and the absence of pigment on the thallus surface, as well as in the barely lichenized thallus; A. carassense Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Marcelli sp. nov., differing from A. purpurascens in orange, K+ red pseudostroma pigment and the slightly larger ascospores; A. cryptolucens Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & N. Salazar sp. nov., differing from A. carrascoense in the inspersed hymenium; A. fijiense Lücking, Naksuwankul & Lumbsch sp. nov., differing from A. cinereorosellum in the presence of lichexanthone on the well-delimited pseudostromata and in the slightly shorter ascospores; A. laevithallinum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Marcelli sp. nov., differing from A. endochryseum in the smooth thallus; A. leucosessile Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Aptroot sp. nov., differing from A. phlyctaena in the conspicuous, sessile pseudostromata; A. macrostomoides Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Benatti sp. nov., differing from A. macrostomum in the larger ascospores; A. megacrypticum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & N. Salazar sp. nov., differing from A. longisporum in the single-spored asci and larger ascospores; A. nicaraguense Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & T. Orozco sp. nov., differing from A. gigantosporum in the smaller ascospores; A. norisianum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Aptroot sp. nov., differing from A. sepultum in the distinct, well-delimited pseudostromata; A. obtectum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Benatti sp. nov., differing from A. nigrocacuminum in the smaller ascospores; A. sordithecium Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Marcelli sp. nov., differing from A. leucothelium in the inspersed hymenium and the absence of lichexanthone from the thallus surface outside the pseudostromata; A. subendochryseum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Marcelli sp. nov., differing from A. endochryseum in the absence of pigment in the pseudostromata and the lateral thallus cover of the pseudostromata; A. subinterjectum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Jungbluth sp. nov., differing from A. obtectum in the smaller pseudostromata and smaller ascospores, and from A. interjectum in the diffuse pseudostromata and smaller ascospores; Bathelium porinosporum Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & Gueidan sp. nov., differing from other Bathelium species in the 3-septate, euseptate ascospores; Nigrovothelium bullatum Lücking, Upreti & Lumbsch sp. nov., differing from N. tropicum in the bullate thallus; Trypethelium tolimense Lücking, Moncada & M. Gut. sp. nov., differing from T. xanthoplatystomum in the absence of a yellow-orange pigment on the pseudostromata and the K+ yellow (not K+ red) medullary pigment; Viridothelium tricolor Lücking, M. P. Nelsen & N. Salazar sp. nov., characterized by black perithecia with a lateral ostiole immersed in white pseudostromata strongly contrasting with the surrounding brown thallus, in combination with 2-spored asci and large, muriform ascospores; and V. vonkonratii Lücking, Naksuwankul & Lumbsch sp. nov., differing from V. virens in larger ascospores and mostly solitary ascomata. All species are illustrated and their taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships are discussed. ITS barcoding sequences are reported for five specimens of Bathelium porinosporum.

This review discusses the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by lichens and their possible roles. All organisms produce ROS, and production is increased by many abiotic and biotic stresses. Intracellular ROS production is generally considered to be harmful, and a variety of enzymic and non-enzymic scavenging systems exist to detoxify them. However, extracellular ROS formation has been suggested to play ‘positive roles’, particularly in the response of organisms to stress. Given their high stress tolerance, it is rather surprising that studies on extracellular ROS production by lichens have just started. Surveys of a wide range of lichens have shown that constitutively high rates of extracellular superoxide production occur in the Suborder Peltigerineae, but production appears to be absent in other groups. In some members of the Peltigerineae ROS production is stimulated by desiccation and wounding. It seems probable that the enzymes that produce the superoxide are laccases, based on first the types of substrates that lichens can break down, and second the dependence of the breakdown of these substrates on pH, temperature and the presence of inhibitors. While much more work is needed, we suggest that physiological roles of extracellular ROS production will be found to include defence against pathogens, melanization, and lignin breakdown.

Thirty-seven species of calicioid lichens and fungi are reported from the Gongga mountains (China). Chaenothecopsis tibellii and Phaeocalicium tibetanicum are described as new. The new combination Chaenothecopsis himalayensis (Räsänen).Tibell & Titov is proposed. A lectotype is selected for Mycocalicium himalayense Räsänen Chaenothecopsis nigropedata is reported as new to the Northern Hemisphere, Pyrgillus cubanus as new to Eurasia, and Chaenotheca cinerea new to Asia. Seven genera and 34 species are reported as new to China. Descriptions and illustrations of the new species are presented along with data on their habitat ecology and distribution.

The species described in or referred to the genus Melanophloea, traditionally referred to the Thelocarpaceae, are discussed. Detailed observations on two species, including the type species, show that they have not much more in common than their polysporous ascus. Melanophloea is reduced to the type species, M. pacifica. It shows a close resemblance to Aptrootia in the Trypetheliaceae, and it is therefore tentatively referred to this family. Melanophloea americana is shown to be close to Thelenella in the Thelenellaceae. The latter species and the related M. montana are newly combined into this genus as Thelenella americana and T. montana. Thelocarpon nigrum, which was recently compared to Melanophloea, is retained in Thelocarpon in the Thelocarpaceae. Polyspory is suggested to facilitate dispersion, especially when compared to parent taxa that produce large muriform ascospores. Based on the current classification, polyspory originated at least 57 times within the lichenized ascomycetes, a clear example of convergent evolution.

Fuscopannaria confusa is a rare lichen restricted to very humid localities in boreal forests. Two Fuscopannaria species, F. ahlneri and F. mediterranea, and Parmeliella parvula are morphologically problematic to distinguish from F. confusa. Our aim with the present study was to evaluate the taxonomic status of F. confusa and thereby clarify its conservation status in Norway. By phylogenetic analysis of multi-locus DNA sequences, we show that F. confusa is genetically well distinguished from F. ahlneri,F. mediterranea, and P. parvula. Fuscopannaria confusa should therefore be treated as a separate species. A species distribution modelling analysis indicates that F. confusa has a slightly continental but potentially wide geographic distribution in Norway. However, suitable localities are continuously being destroyed by clear-cut logging and hydroelectric power development. Because of the decline in suitable habitats, F. confusa should be regarded as highly threatened in Norway and listed as EN (endangered) at the national level.

During a revision of epiphytic species of the Lecanora subfusca group in the Czech Republic, nine taxa were recorded. Lecanora cinereofusca, although reported for the first time from the country here, is considered to be extinct, as is L. horiza. Lecanora circumborealis has been excluded from the list of Czech lichens. Lecanora rugosella and L. subrugosa respectively are regarded as extreme morphological forms of L. chlarotera and L. argentata, ecologically derived through nutrient enrichment (eutrophication). Lecanora laevis is regarded as a morphotype of L. horiza. An identification key is provided. The importance of the amphithecium and cortex type as taxonomic characters is discussed in detail. Several new secondary metabolites belonging to the terpenoids, discovered during an investigation of lichen compounds, proved to be taxonomically important. The abundance of L. allophana and L. chlarotera has decreased during the second half of the 20th century, but L. pulicaris has expanded. The main reasons for these changes are air pollution and acidification of substrata; L. pulicaris, for example, formerly a predominant lichen on acid-barked trees, today grows mainly on trees with slightly acidic or subneutral bark.

This study focuses on European Usnea species with sorediate shrubby thalli, with the aim to evaluate the morphological and chemical separation of species in the light of molecular data. Twenty-two Usnea species, including widely distributed taxa such as U. diplotypus, U. fulvoreagens, U. glabrescens, U. lapponica, U. subfloridana, U. substerilis and U. wasmuthii, were included in the study using Bayesian and maximum parsimony analyses of nuclear ITS and beta-tubulin sequences. The analyses showed that: 1) most taxa that are morphologically well delimited are also distinct by means of molecular characters, 2) shrubby taxa in the section Usnea that are difficult to determine by traditional characters form a group of closely related but still genetically distinct entities, except U. diplotypus and U. substerilis which appear to be polyphyletic. The branch lengths differed largely between two parts of the ITS tree (sections Usnea and Ceratinae). Usnea intermedia is proposed as the sexually reproducing counterpart for the sorediate U. lapponica. Additionally, some new chemotypes of Usnea species were determined.

The lichenicolous coelomycete Stromatopogon baldwinii., forming galls on Usnea inTasmania and the Sandwich Islands, has a type of conidiogenesis not previously recognized amongst lichenized and lichenicolous fungi. Two different types of conidia, small simple microconidia and large submuriform macroconidia, are produced in the same conidioma, but in different regionsof the inner conidiomatal wall. The same kind of cells of the conidiomatal wall act as conidiogenous cells when macroconidia are produced, or give rise to elongated ramified conidiophoreswhen microconidia are produced.

Eleven Xanthoparmelia species have been identified from Italy. A key to the species is provided and the distinguishing morphological and chemical characters, distribution, ecology, substratum preference and interrelationships of each are discussed. Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia is reported for the first time from Europe; X. angustiphylla and X. plittii are new to Italy.