Fifteen species of Usnea are recorded from Iberian cork-oak forests: U. ceratina, U. comma, U. dasaea, U. esperantiana, U. flammea, U. fulvoreagens, U. glabrata, U. hirta, U. mutabilis, U. rubicunda, U. subcornuta, U. subfloridana U. subscabrosa, U. substerilis and U. wasmuthii. A key for these species is provided. Details of morphology, chemistry, distribution, ecology and taxonomy are discussed. Usnea dasaea is reported as new to the Iberian Peninsula. New chemotypes of U. fulvoreagens (with squamatic acid) and U. wasmuthii (with psoromic acid) have been identified. Distribution maps of U. dasaeaand U. subcornuta in Europe are presented. A new combination, Usnea subfloridana subsp. praetervisa (Asahina) P. Clerc, is proposed.

The standing crop of the epilithic foliose lichen Mastodia tesselata and some other species, the nutrient status (chloride, phosphate, nitrate and ammonium) of the substratum, slope and moisture availability were studied in 29 sample plots on Petermann Island (65°10'S, 66°30'W), Antarctica. The observed standing crop values for Mastodia ranged from 49 to 614 g m 2, with an average of 310 g m 2 (17 sample plots), and were 542 g m−2 for Rinodina petermannii (one sample plot) and 314 g m−2 for the alga Prasiola crispa in two meltwater pools. A regression equation with log-transformed ammonium and phosphate concentrations as predictors explained 75% of the observed variance in Mastodia standing crop. No significant influence of chloride or nitrate concentration on the Mastodia standing crop was detected, indicating that Mastodia is a salt-tolerant lichen species, but is not an obligate halophyte. The maximal standing crop of Mastodia on Petermann Island proved to be lower than maximal values found for fruticose macrolichen vegetation in maritime and continental Antarctic. The Mastodia standing crop on Petermann Island was similar to the standing crop of this species on subantarctic Marion Island.

The new generic names Codonmyces and Lichenostetta are introduced for two new species of conidial fungi. Lichenostella hypotrachynae gen. et sp. nov. is a commensal of Hypotrachyna species, and is mainly characterized by forming black sporodochia with setae and, particularly, by its star-like conidia. Codonmyces lecanorae gen. et. sp. nov. occurs on Lecanora valesiaca and differs from the genus Xanthoriicola by its 1-septate conidia and campanulate conidiogenous cells with several conspicuous, flared annellations. Comments on the ecology of L. valesiaca, and its associated lichens and lichenicolous fungi are also given.

Following a nationwide survey, the lichen vegetation associated with chalk grassland in England is described. The flora can be divided into species associated with flints (78 spp.), those found on chalk pebbles (65) and those occurring on the ground (72). Factors governing the distribution of the species were investigated. An important determinant of the flint assemblage is the degree of surface leaching, which is linked to stability; large flints embedded in turf are particularly rich. Chalkpebble lichens reach their maximum development at sites where faulting or other influences have hardened the substratum. Terricolous species have rather specialized requirements, being favoured by stresses associated with nutrient depletion, past disturbance, soil compaction, drought, rabbits, trampling by shoes (rather than hooves), and the presence of a small loess fraction in the soil. On both a national and a local scale, climate has been demonstrated to affect the distribution of certain species. Guidelines on the assessment of localities for conservation are provided and used to identify elite sites. A recent decline in the extent and species diversity of terricolous communities is giving cause for concern. Management requirements for conservation are discussed. They include recognizing the importance of intermittent disturbance; most of the richest sites are less than a hundred years old. The lichen flora has affinities with that present in urban areas. The survey provides an example of the importance of historical factors in determining the ecology of lichen communities in the cultural landscape.

Since seasonal variation in the nitrogenase activity of Stereocaulon paschale is known, the infrastructure of Stigonema in the cephalodia was examined in thalli of S. paschale collected from under snow in late winter, and from bare ground in late autumn. In contrast to the Stigonema cells of the autumn material, those of the winter material were relatively devoid of osmiophilic (lipid) droplets and polyglucoside and cyanophycin granules, reflecting that carbon and nitrogen storage products had been metabolized. In young cephalodia dividing cells were common, while in old cephalodia degenerating cells predominated. Haustoria appeared in material collected in both seasons, but may be limited to degenerating Stigonema cells or to Stigonema cells with a low metabolic activity.

Porpidia hypostictica is described as a new species; it has a white to grey-white thallus with yellow, oxidized patches near the margin, and contains hypostictic acid as the only major compound. A phylogenetic analysis is provided which is based on ITS sequences using ML and Bayesian analyses. The phylogeny supported the separation of the new species from other species. A key to all known Chinese Porpidia species is provided.

In recent years, several species that have long been considered to belong in Bacidia s. lat. have been transferred to other genera such as Bellicidia, Bibbya, Scutula, and also to Toniniopsis, accommodating species previously placed in Bacidia and Toninia. One of its widespread species, Toniniopsis subincompta, can be recognized by its thinly granular thallus, dark brown to black apothecia, green epithecium, red-brown hypothecium, and bacilliform ascospores. However, it shows considerable variation in thallus structure, and coloration of apothecia, hypothecium and exciple. We sequenced 20 specimens of T. subincompta to investigate whether there is phylogenetic support for the delimitation of species in accordance with the variability of the observed characters. For phylogenetic analyses, we used newly generated sequence data from the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (nrITS), mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) and DNA-directed RNA polymerase II subunit (RPB2). Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses, as well as three species delimitation programs, provided consistent evidence that T. subincompta forms two separate lineages, to be recognized at the species level. The complex nomenclature of T. subincompta (basionym Lecidea subincompta) shows it to be a synonym of Bellicidia incompta. For the most common taxon previously called Bacidia (Toniniopsis) subincompta, the new combination T. separabilis is made, rather than proposing a conserved type for Lecidea subincompta. Toniniopsis dissimilis is newly described to accommodate the less common taxon. Toniniopsis dissimilis is characterized by a predominantly wrinkled to warted to subsquamulose thallus; generally grey-brown to dark brown apothecia, often with a lighter margin; a dark brown hypothecium, frequently gradually merging into the coloration of the exciple below and the lateral part of the exciple attached to the hymenium; a mostly colourless rim and lateral part of the exciple. The closely related T. separabilis is characterized by a thallus of mostly single or contiguous ±loose granules, often forming short, coralloid, isidium-like bulges; darker apothecia, with a margin mostly of the same colour or darker than the disc; a comparatively thinner hypothecium easily separated from the exciple below. The rim and lateral part of the exciple often contain either a blue, brown or mixed blue-brown colour in the upper part or along the whole margin. Lectotypes of Bacidia vegeta, Lecidea bacillifera f. melanotica and Secoliga atrosanguinea var. affinis (the synonyms of T. separabilis) are selected. Cyanotrophy and the occurrence of albino morphs in T. separabilis are discussed.

Based on collections focusing on Graphidaceae made in 2012 at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) in Singapore, seven new species are described: Astrochapsa sipmanii, differing from A. astroidea in the olive-brown thallus and thick and coarse apothecial pruina; Fissurina duplomarginata, differing from F. insidiosa by the double margin of the lirellae and the more greenish, rough thallus; Graphis bukittimaensis, differing from G. phaeospora in the erumpent lirellae with lateral thalline margin and the consistently 1-spored asci; G. singaporensis, differing from G. novopalmicola in the much smaller ascospores and in the immersed, densely branched lirellae with thin lateral thalline margin; Ocellularia subudupiensis, differing from O. udupiensis in the presence of three unknown secondary substances and in the comparatively rough thallus surface; O. gueidaniana, characterized by small, transversely septate, hyaline ascospores, prominent, carbonized but ecolumellate apothecia, and two unknown chemical substances resembling metabolites in the stictic acid chemosyndrome; and O. rivasplatana, differing from O. exigua in the larger, broad-pored apothecia with black-rimmed margin and filled with a black-topped columella. Nineteen species are recognized as new records for Singapore. The substantial diversity of Graphidaceae in this reserve suggests that many more taxa are awaiting discovery, even in such a highly urbanized location.

Pronectria collematis, growing on Collema auriforme, C. cristatum, and C. undulatum, is described from Germany and Spain.

The corticolous lichen Lecanora subviridis de la Rosa & Messuti is described from temperate forests in south-western Argentina as new to science. It differs from other species of Lecanora occurring on bark and wood by containing usnic or isousnic acid. The relationships with the other taxa are discussed.

The assertion that the blue-greens (‘cyanobacteria’) are bacteria and not algae has led to alternative concepts for both of the latter terms. Bacteria is now often used to designate the prokaryote kingdom, that includes the blue-greens, while in other contexts it means specifically those prokaryotes that are not blue-greens. The term algae, on the other hand, has no biosystematic implications; it encompasses many phylogenetically independent lineages characterized by oxygen-evolving photosynthesis. The algal status of the blue-greens is therefore not compromised by their classification among the bacteria. Current lichenological terminology, however, reflects the view that the blue-greens are not algae, thereby diverging from the concept of algae employed in phycology. The purpose and utility of terms that group organisms according to structural, functional and ecological criteria are insufficiently appreciated. These concepts do not compete with phylogenetic/biosystematic classifications, but rather complement them.