A new lichenicolous fungus species, Polydesmia lichenis Huhtinen & R. Sant., growing on species of Peltigera is described from Sweden and Norway.

A new lichen species, Catillaria nigroisidiata, is described from the Netherlands: it is the first isidiate species known in the genus and has been collected growing on granite on dykes in the north-eastern part of the country. This new species is easily overlooked because of the completely black appearance. A key to Catillaria s.str. in western Europe is provided.

Eighty-seven lichen taxa were collected at four localities near the leadzinc mine at Maarmorilik. These are listed alphabetically and grouped according to their ecological preferences. Lichens, which in Greenland are restricted to calcareous rocks and alkaline soil substrata, are well represented in the Maarmorilik area. In contrast, ferrugineous lichens appear to be comparatively rare. The lichens around the mining town are assumed to have accumulated significant concentrations of airborne lead and zinc. However, no damage to the lichens caused by heavy metals was observed.

The lichen flora of natural outcrops, disused quarries and churchyards in the Magnesian Limestone belt of England, which stretches from Nottingham to Tyneside, is described with reference to 50 sites; 106 taxa were encountered. The lichen flora is compared with that of the Carboniferous Limestone in Derbyshire and found to be distinctive, relating particularly to the abundance of less exacting calcicoles. Lecanora campestris subsp. dolomitica, a lichen widespread at the southern end of the outcrop, is described.

The genus Micarea was studied for the first time in the Taita Hills, Kenya. Based on new collections and existing data, we reconstructed a phylogeny using ITS, mtSSU and Mcm7 regions, and generated a total of 27 new sequences. Data were analyzed using maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony methods. Based mainly on new collections, we discovered four undescribed well-supported lineages, characterized by molecular and phenotypic features. These lineages are described here as Micarea pumila, M. stellaris, M. taitensis and M. versicolor. Micarea pumila is characterized by a minutely granular thallus, small cream-white or pale brownish apothecia, small ascospores and the production of prasinic acid. Micarea stellaris has a warted-areolate thallus, cream-white apothecia usually darker at the centre, a hymenium of light grey or brownish pigment that dissolves in K, and intense crystalline granules that appear as a belt-like continuum across the lower hymenium when studied in polarized light. Micarea taitensis is characterized by a warted-areolate thallus and cream-white or yellowish apothecia that sometimes produce the Sedifolia-grey pigment. Micarea versicolor is characterized by a warted-areolate, sometimes partly granular thallus and apothecia varying from cream-white to light grey to blackish in colour. This considerable variation in the coloration of its apothecia is caused by an occasional mixture of the Sedifolia-grey pigment in the epihymenium and another purplish brown pigment in the hymenium. Micarea stellaris, M. taitensis and M. versicolor produce methoxymicareic acid. The main distinguishing characters are presented in a species synopsis. Three of the new species are nested in the M. prasina group, and the fourth one (M. taitensis) resolves as a basal taxon to the M. prasina group. The new species inhabit montane cloud forests, which have fragmented dramatically throughout the Eastern Arc Mountains in recent decades.

The lichen communities on 50 disused military airfields were surveyed. The habitats involve saxicolous communities growing on horizontal concrete and tarmac surfaces, and terricolous ones found on spreads of gritty soil. About 150 lichens were encountered. Some, such as Caloplaca crenulatella, had been seriously over-looked, others are local, for example Caloplaca ceracea, Leptogium britannicum, L. corniculatum, Peltigera neckeri and Phaeophyscia sciastra, while Staurothele frustulenta was the first correctly identified specimen from Britain. Tarmac surfaces in the north and west are characterized by rich assemblages of Parmelia s. lat. species and have affinities with communities occurring on basalt; tarmac ones in the east support an undescribed community; while terricolous communities have similarities with those present on sand dune. Fifty-year-old associations on concrete match two already described from limestone. Disused airfields represent a major overlooked lichen resource.

Mature as well as juvenile stages of thalli and apothecia occurring on numerous meteorite fragments found on Ella Island can be referred to 10 genera of lichens: Acarospora, Candelariella, Gyalidea, Lecanora, Lecidea, Physcia, Pseudephebe, Polysporina, Rinodina and Xanlhoria. In their colonization phase these lichens are influenced by the mineralogy and chemistry of the meteorite fragments. Thus Xanlhoria shows a distinct preference for the meteorite minerals rich in iron, whereas Candelariella appears to avoid these minerals.

In the mid-1950s, two distinguished Italian researchers, the mycologist Raffaele Ciferri (1895–1965) and the phytosociologist Ruggero Tomaselli (1920–1982), decided that a separate system of naming lichen mycobionts independent of the intact thalli was necessary. In this they were stimulated by the pioneering studies of Thomas (1939) in particular, which showed how different cultured isolated mycobionts appeared from whole lichen thalli. Thomas had already introduced separate names, ending in the suffix “-myces”, and they determined to introduce a comprehensive suite of generic names for lichen mycobionts in a series of papers (Tomaselli & Ciferri 1952; Ciferri & Tomaselli 1953, 1954, 1957). The numbers of generic names coined and validly published with Latin diagnoses were substantial: 15 in 1952, 203 in 1953, and a further nine in 1954. They made proposals to change the provisions of the Code, which then already ruled that names given to lichens were to be regarded as applying to their fungal components, but these were defeated and never adopted; this rule remains in the Code in Art. 13.1 (Greuter et al. 2000).

A new fruticulose species, Polycauliona comandorica, is described from the supralittoral zone of the Commander Islands in the Russian Far East. This growth form is very rare in the family Teloschistaceae where the new species belongs. It is the only fruticulose species of the family that forms vegetative propagules (soredia and blastidia). Polycauliona comandorica is similar to the North American P. thamnodes but differs in having a lighter yellow to grey thallus, longer and thicker branches with a rough surface, soredia and blastidia, and in lacking apothecia. Two fruticulose-lobate pairs of species in Polycauliona are briefly discussed: P. comandorica-P. verruculifera and P. thamnodes-P. brattiae.

The maintenance of protected lichen species and their biodiversity in general depends on good management practices based on their distribution and habitat preferences. To date, 10 of the 17 protected lichen species of Hungary have been recorded in the Bakony Mts including the Balaton Uplands region. Habitat preferences of three protected Cladonia species (C. arbuscula, C. mitis and C. rangiferina) growing on underlying rocks of red sandstone, basalt, Pannonian sandstone and gravel were investigated by detailed sampling. We recorded aspect, underlying rock type, soil depth, pH and CaCO3 content, habitat type (as defined by the General National Habitat Classification System Á-NÉR), all species of lichen, bryophyte and vascular plants as well as percentage cover of exposed rock, total bryophytes, lichens, vascular plants and canopy, degree of disturbance and animal impacts. Sporadic populations of these species mostly exist at the top of hills and mountains in open acidofrequent oak forests, but they may occur in other habitats, such as closed acidofrequent oak forests, slope steppes on stony soils, siliceous open rocky grasslands, open sand steppes, wet and mesic pioneer scrub and dry Calluna heaths. Cladonia rangiferina was found to grow beneath higher canopy cover than either C. arbuscula or C. mitis in the Balaton Uplands. Furthermore, there were significant differences in canopy cover between occupied and unoccupied quadrats in the case of all three species. Cladonia rangiferina is a good indicator species of natural habitats in Hungary due to its restricted distribution and low ecological tolerance. These results may lead to the adoption of effective conservation methods (e.g. game exclusion, artificial dispersal) in the future.

The new species, Solenopsora tasmanica Kantvilas, is described and its distinguishing characteristics are discussed. The new species is the first record for the genus for Tasmania and occurs on montane, acidic soils, an unusual habitat for Solenopsora. It also contains the compounds brialmontin 1 and brialmontin 2, recorded from Solenopsora for the first time.

Argüello et al. (2007) found that Parmelina quercina, as circumscribed by Hale (1976), comprised four phylogenetic species which could also be distinguished by morphological features and also had different distributions: P. carporrhizans (usually rhizinate apothecia, and distinct effigurate maculae; oceanic Europe and Macaronesia), P. coleae (usually rhizinate apothecia, narrow ascospores, and fenestrate maculae; North America), P. elixia (non-rhizinate apothecia, larger ascospores, smaller conidia, and not or faintly maculate; Australia), and P. quercina (apothecia rhizinate or not, and less distinct more rounded maculae; continental Europe).