----- Original Message -----

From: tim gerk

To: chicagolichens@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 9:53 PM

Subject: [chicagolichens] lichen distributions

    Rich recently initiated some good discussion of native versus non-native lichens.  The thing to keep in mind about lichens is that they are the perfect pioneer species.  For example--In 1967 the completely new volcanic island called Surtsey was formed somewhat near Iceland.  It took some time to cool off, but by 1970 there were already lichen species on it!!  Would those then be considered non-native?  Of course not--there was nothing else there at that time but some algae.

    In the list of lichens that Rich found in Chicago, there were 5 species found only in North America.  Caloplaca suboluta, Physciella chloantha, Physconia leucoleiptes, Xanthomendoza fallax, Xanthomendoza fulva are these.  That doesn't mean they're not found elsewhere, that's just what the records seem to indicate.  Physconia leucoleiptes has an occurence showing up in Estonia, but that is a specimen in a collection and could've been collected from America. 

    Anyhow, below are some good links to look up lichen distributions. 

http://www.ies.wisc.edu/nplichen/  US National Park distributions ---quite a good listing and easy to look up

This next one below has actual diagrams of the various species distributions (not North American)

http://geobot.botanik.uni-greifswald.de/sammlungen/flechten/karten/album/slides/

 The one below has a worldwide distributions list.  To advance on to the next page, type a 2 or 3 at the end of the address. 

http://www.toyen.uio.no/botanisk/bot-mus/lav/bmluhb_1.htm

   

 

Have some fun with these links,

Tim