The lichen flora of a very small, but outstandingly rich, outcrop of limestone and epidiorite at 1030 m in the Ben Alder range is described. One hundred and six calcicolous species were encountered, many of which are rare nationally; eight are not known elsewhere in Britain. The site is compared with other calcareous mountains in Scotland and possible reasons for its distinctive lichen flora are suggested.

In the Athabasca Oil Sands area of Alberta, a study was carried out to test a lichen community transplant technique and to determine the influence of oil sands extraction and processing emissions on lichen cover of transplanted communities. Measurement errors of a photographic technique for the determination of lichen cover were dependent upon lichen species but were not correlated to lichen cover. When lichen covers were small therefore, relative errors were very large. Changes in cover of naturally occurring lichen communities on black spruce branches were not significant over a four-year period. Lichen communities transplanted under jack pine and white spruce trees had cover changes with time not different from naturally occurring communities even over a period of years.

Significant (P<0.001) cover reductions of some lichen groups occurred on transplanted branches under white spruce within 8–3 km of a pollution source. Evernia, Cetraria, and Bryoria groups were reduced whereas Hypogymnia showed no response over a 3 year measurement period. Reductions in lichen cover were greater than the demonstrated precision of the technique.

Myeloconis P. M. McCarthy & Elix gen. nov. is described from the Neotropics and the eastern Paleotropics. Four new species, M. erumpens, M. fecunda, M. guyanenis and M. parva, are recognized. The genus is characterized by a medulla containing previously unknown yellow or orange pigments and perithecioid ascomata with a dark, dense, almost pseudostromatal wall, a basally anastomosing, but otherwise free, hamathecium, uniformly thin-walled asci and elongate, muriform ascospores. While its affinities are uncertain, the ascomata and their contents suggest a rather close relationship with Porina Müll. Arg. and ClathroporinaMüll. Arg. (Trichotheliaceae).

The species of Dermatocarpon occurring in the British Isles are reviewed, with special reference to the hydrophilous species; a number of related species not yet recorded for the British Isles are also briefly treated. Dermatocarpon deminuens and D. leptophyllodes are confirmed as British; the name D. leptophyllum should be deleted from the British list. The name D. melophyllum is shown to be based on discordant elements. A key is provided to the British and Irish species.

A new species of Lecanora with a yellowish green thallus, Lecanora strobilinoides Giralt & Gomez-Bolea sp.nov. is described. It was found only in SE Catalonia (NE Spain) at low and middle altitudes, growing on bark and lignum of trees and shrubs, mainly on Pinus halepensis and Quercus ilex. Closely related to Lecanora strobilina (Sprengel) Kieffer, it is easily separated by its asci, with (12–)16(–32) ascospores, that are smaller and frequently 1-septate.

A new lichen species, Pyrenula darjeelingensis (Pyrenulaceae), is described from the Eastern Himalayan region of India. It is characterized by having 5-septate to submuriform ascospores with papillate apices and the terminal lumina mostly not separated from the exospore by an endospore layer. Six additional species of Pyrenula are reported for the first time from India: P. acutalis R. C. Harris, P. dermatodes (Borrer) Schaer., P. mastophoroides (Nyl.) Zahlbr., P. mucosa (Vain.) R. C. Harris, P. subelliptica (Tuck.) R. C. Harris and P. thelemorpha Tuck.

Relationships between reproductive strategies and population spatial structure have often been suggested for lichens, but there is a lack of supporting aerobiological data. For the first time, this study couples aerobiological investigations on meiospore dispersal by Caloplaca crenulatella (Nyl.) H. Olivier and Rhizocarpon geographicum (L.) DC. with analysis of local spatial patterns of thalli of both species. During a two-year monitoring period carried out on the walls of a medieval castle in NW Italy, a total of 169 polar diblastic spores, 20% of which were morphologically attributable to C. crenulatella, was detected in the mycoareosol, while muriform spores of R. geographicum were never found. Laboratory experiments confirmed that different dispersal patterns characterize the two species, the meiospores of R. geographicum being poorly discharged and only recovered at a short distance from thalli, whereas those of C. crenulatella were more abundantly discharged, suspended and better dispersed by a moderate air flow. This difference was reflected on the castle walls by the random spatial pattern of C. crenulatella, while R. geographicum showed a clustered distribution. Different discharge rates and take-off limitations, possibly related to size differences between the spores, are not sufficient to explain the different colonization patterns and dynamics of the two species. Additional intrinsic and extrinsic factors are likely to drive their dispersal and establishment success. Nevertheless, information on the relationships between different dispersal patterns of the species and the local spatial structure of their populations might help to predict the recovery potential of lichen species exposed to habitat loss or disturbance, or encrusting monument surfaces.

Recent revisions of the graphidaceous lichens of India have brought to light several new taxa in the family Graphidaceae. In the present study seven species of Acanthothecis are recognized from India. Three new species, viz. Acanthothecis archeri, A. celata, and A. coccinea, are described and A. nivalis, a species described earlier from the Andaman Islands, has now been recorded from the mainland. A revised key to the seven Acanthothecis species so far known from India is also presented.

Two new species of Lichenothelia, both from Iran, are described. Lichenothelia iranica is characterized by a black thallus with often finely lobate, slightly effigurate, not areolate margins, eight non-amyloid spores per ascus and 1–3-septate ascospores with 1–2 longitudinal or oblique septa. Lichenothelia ilamensis is distinguished by a black areolate, fissured, slightly effigurate or rarely lobulate thallus. The areoles are confluent and aggregated in the centre, becoming dispersed towards the margin, and the asci contain (4–)6(–8) non-amyloid, 1-septate spores.

Deer exclosure is an important management strategy for encouraging woodland regeneration in the presence of high numbers of Cervus elaphus L. This could pose a threat to important saxicolous lichen communities as a result of competition from bryophytes and other vegetation. This investigation compared the bryophyte and lichen communities associated with siliceous rock outcrops and boulders inside and outside a number of exclosures in wet heath vegetation at the Gruinard, Letterewe and Little Gruinard estates in Wester Ross. Species cover data were recorded from 6600·2×0·2 m quadrats, allocated to three different aspects of rocks, from 22 pairs of plots (placed either side of a deer fence) with randomization at each level of this hierarchy. The data were analyzed using linear mixed effects models. Mean lichen cover, diversity and species richness were significantly lower in quadrats on rocks within the exclosures. Mean bryophyte cover was significantly higher in quadrats on rocks inside the deer fence and was shown to have a highly significant negative relationship with total lichen cover. Saxicolous lichen species are particularly affected by the increase in shading and litter accumulation from the surrounding plants and the subsequent growth of bryophytes and heath vegetation on rocks within the exclosures. The results of this study have implications for the use of exclosures at locations where there are important saxicolous lichen communities.

Healthy thalli of Parmelia sulcata Taylor were transplanted to 8 localities in the surroundings of a power station (La Robla, León, Spain), the sole pollution source in the region. Changes in chlorophyll a fluorescence were monitored in the transplants 12 months, 18 months and 24 months after transplantation. Statistically significant differences were observed in the ratio of variable to maximal fluorescence, non-photochemical fluorescence quenching and vitality index. The decrease in fluorescence parameters was higher in the localities of Cuadros and Rabanal de Fenar, which are situated a few kilometres away from the power station and in the same direction as the prevailing winds.

A new isidiate species in the genus Graphis Adans. (sensu Staiger 2002), Graphis isidiza (Graphidaceae, ascomycetes) is described from the Western Ghats of India.

Our close colleague for 30–40 years, the late Mason E. Hale Jr (1928–1990), was one of the most outstanding lichenologists of the 20th century. While he was terminally ill, he was anxious to complete his world monograph of Xanthoparmelia which he saw through to publication, and accepted 406 species (Hale 1990). Throughout the later periods of his career, his major aim was to document and describe the enormous extent of diversity in the graphidaceous and parmelioid lichens worldwide, and especially in the tropics where he travelled and collected extensively, describing numerous species new to science, 386 in parmelioid groups (Hale & DePriest 1999). In his later years he had, understandably, little time for the nuances of the Code, and, if the principle of adopting proposals for the protection of Names in Current Use (Greuter 1991) had been adopted this would have not caused problems. Sadly it was not, which means that some issues have to be reconsidered. One of these is the correct name for one of the commonest species of Xanthoparmelia, for which he used the name X. somloënsis in his monograph. During the last 15 years, many lichenologists have followed Hale in adopting X. somloënsis, but the nomenclaturally correct name for this species proves to be X. stenophylla.

The new species, Menegazzia jamesii Louwhoff & Kantvilas from Victoria and Tasmania, closely related to M. pertransita (Stirt.) R. Sant., is described. Chemical and nomenclatural notes on M. caliginosa P. James & D. J. Galloway and M. pertransita are provided, and the new combination, M. stirtonii (Zahlbr.) Kantvilas & Louwhoff, is proposed. The name M. weindorferi (Zahlbr.) R. Sant., widely applied in Australian literature, is considered synonymous with M. pertransita, whereas M. bullata (Stirt.) Bitter is considered a synonym of M. stirtonii.

Peltularia crassa P. M. Jørg. & D. Galloway, a new, umbilicate lichen in the family Coccocarpiaceae is described from Campbell Island south of New Zealand. It occurs also on Macquarie Island. Its taxonomic and phytogeographical relationships are discussed.

Three new species of Verrucaria are described from calcareous and calciferous rocks in Finland based on morphology and ITS sequences. The species are all members of the Endocarpon group in the Verrucariaceae. Verrucaria oulankaensis sp. nov. is related to V. cernaensis but differing in its usually pruinose, small areolate thallus. It occurs in NE Finland on calcareous and calciferous rocks on river shores. Verrucaria ahtii sp. nov. and V. vitikainenii sp. nov. form a sister group in the ITS phylogeny. Verrucaria vitikainenii differs from V. ahtii in the darker and thinner thallus, absence of a prothallus and in the perithecia, which lack thalline cover. Verrucaria ahtii morphologically resembles V. apomelaena but differs in having a thinner involucrellum and a fimbriate prothallus. It has a southern distribution in Finland and prefers sun-exposed sites, particularly pebbles in lime quarries. The species is also reported from Lithuania and Russia. Verrucaria vitikainenii has an eastern distribution in Finland. The species is a strict calcicole, preferring half-shady habitats. Verrucaria apomelaena is excluded from the Finnish lichen flora.

Xanthoria poeltii, a new species combining characters of X. candelaria and X. ulophyllodes from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Hungary, is described and illustrated. Comments about its differences from related taxa are provided.