Aims of this website

Our intention with this website is to shine a brighter light on lichens, lichenicolous fungi and allied fungi. We have two main aims in this regard:

• Provide information to people who are interested in learning more about lichens. This website aims to provide a compendium of all of the lichen species recorded in North Carolina, with pictures of each species, information on species identification, general information about their distribution in the state (by county), their relative abundance in the state, their seasonal occurrence in the state, their habitats, as well as additional comments on the species (such as notable facts, taxonomic issues, or population trends). County maps of occurrence are provided for each species.

• Build a base of public support for the conservation of lichens and their habitats in North Carolina. We want to make clear the situation that faces lichens and other species in terms of their continued survival in our state and share this information to help guide conservation decisions made by individual land-owners, conservation organizations, governmental agencies, and particularly by the public. To accomplish these goals, especially where they involve lichens or other species not usually given much public attention, we need to make our case from the best evidence we can muster, placing the plight of lichens well within the context of the larger world of which both we and they are an important part.

How to navigate the website

To see a species account, start typing the scientific name in the Search Scientific Name field or, if a common name exists, the common name is the Search Common Name field. Names of species appear on the screen; click on the correct species that you want, so that the full name appears in the field box; then click Find (to the right).

Once you are viewing a species account you can get to another species (within the same Family) by clicking the down arrow under the scientific name, where the box shows other members in the Family; click on the species of interest.

How to Identify a lichen, lichenicolous fungus or allied fungus

While we will eventually have identification tips included in the Species Accounts for all species that occur in the state, there are a number of other identification guides that already exist and are specifically tailored for identifying an unknown lichen. Information on these resources is included in the Identification Guides tab on the main menu bar located at the top of the Home Page.

How to become a Citizen Scientist

One of our main aims is to involve the public in documenting the distribution and habitat associations of the state’s lichen flora. We therefore welcome records from anyone wishes to submit for species observed in North Carolina. Information on how to submit records and the details we need to vet the records are included in the Citizen Science tab on the main menu bar located at the top of the Home Page.

Statistics

Number of records: 14,711

Number of records by Record Type:
    CNALH = 11,610
    Literature = 2,624
    Herbarium specimen = 368
    Photograph = 90
    Unpublished Checklist = 19

Number of NC Lichens (lichenized fungi): 1,407
                           Lichenicolous Fungus:    115
                                      Allied Fungus:      30
                                Uncertain Affinity:        6

Number of NC taxa: 1,558
NC taxa based on literature reports = 969
NC taxa based solely on Lichen Portal records = 589

DISCLAIMER

The above numbers are based on a combination of specimen citations in the published literature and specimen records in the Lichen Portal (Lichen Portal); some Lichen Portal records may not be accurately identified. Therefore, the above record statistics may be overestimated. Efforts are underway to investigate questionable records and make corrections as necessary.

The NC taxa based on literature reports presents a minimum estimate of the NC lichen biodiversity, while the total taxa may be a maximum estimate as some Lichen Portal records may be inaccurate.

What is a Lichen?

Have you ever wondered what those growths on the ground, on trees and on rocks are, those that appear like a stain, a crust, or leafy or shrubby? These remarkable organisms are lichens (lichenized fungi), fungi that have evolved a symbiosis with a photosynthetic partner, and thus live like a plant. The fungal partner (mycobiont) is most often a cup fungus (ascomycete), but a few species involve a mushroom fungus (basidiomycete). The photosynthetic partner (photobiont) is most often a green alga (phycobiont), but can also be a cyanobacterium (cyanobiont) or more rarely a golden or brown alga. Recent research has found that lichens also include whole communities of bacteria (Hodkinson et al. 2012) and other fungi, including a defensive chemical producing yeast (Spribille et al. 2016).

Lichens come in a wide array of size and shape, with several growth forms recognized, including: crustose (crust-like), foliose (leaf-like), squamulose (shingle-like) and fruticose (shrub-like). Some lichens are dimorphic, consisting of a primary crustose or squamulose thallus (body) with several erect stalks.

Lichens grow on environmental surfaces in all habitats. Those that grow on rock are saxicolous; on soil are terricolous; on bark are corticolous; and on leaves are foliicolous. Lichens are found in most terrestrial habitats and a few aquatic ones around the Earth. Through their ability to live in a dry state, lichens can tolerate a wide variety of stressful habitats, from the Antarctic t teh hottest deserts - some have even survived extended periods in orbit on the outer hull of the International Space Station (Brandt et al. 2015). However, lichens are susceptible to air pollution, first recognized by Erasmus Darwin, grandfather to Charles Darwin. Since that time, lichens have been studied to learn of their pollution sensitivity, often with fewer lichens found growing in more polluted sites than those in cleaner areas across the globe, including here in North Carolina (Mather 1978, Perlmutter 2010, Perlmutter et al. 2017). Therefore, not only can lichens be used to monitor environmental health, some of the more sensitive species are of conservation concern.

North Carolina has a rich lichen biota, with over 1000 species documented. Recent studies have identified two biodiversity hotspots in our state: the Southern Appalachians including the Great Smoky Mountains to the west (Lendemer et al. 2013) and the Dare Regional Biodiversity Hotspot along the coast (Lendemer et al. 2016). This website is the latest iteration of the North Carolina lichen checklist, first listing 600 species (Perlmutter 2005), and is a living document as more recent discoveries and records are being added as our state continues to be explored of its lichen diversity.

Species naming follows the latest version of the North American lichen checklist (Esslinger 2019) unless otherwise indicated on a given species page. Family placement follows the latest Outline of Fungi.

References:

Brandt, A./ De Vera, J.-P./ Onofri, S./ Ott, S. 2015: Viability of the lichen Xanthoria elegans and its symbionts after 18 months of space exposure and simulated Mars conditions on the ISS. - International Journal of Astrobiology 14(3): 411-425.

Esslinger, T.L. 2019: A cumulative checklist for the lichen-forming, lichenicolous and allied fungi of the continental United States and Canada, version 23. - Opuscula Philolichenum 18: 102-378.

Lendemer, J.C., R.C. Harris and E.A. Tripp. 2013. The Lichens and Allied Fungi of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 104.

Lendemer, J.C./ Harris, R.C./ Ruiz, A.M. 2016: A review of the lichens of the Dare Regional Biodiversity Hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain of North Carolina, eastern North America. - Castanea 81(1): 1-77.

Mather, T. C. 1978. Lichens as indicators of air pollution in the vicinity of Copperhill, Tennessee. Georgia Journal of Science 36: 127–139.

Hodkinson, B. P./ N. R. Gottel/ C. W. Schadt/ F. Lutzoni 2012: Photoautotrophic symbiont and geography are major factors affecting highly structured and diverse bacterial communities in the lichen microbiome. - Environmental Microbiology 14(1): 147-161.

Perlmutter, G.B. 2010. Bioassessing air pollution effects with epiphytic lichens in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. The Bryologist 113(1): 39-50.

Perlmutter, G.B., G.B. Blank and E. Rivas Plata. 2017. Checklists of corticolous lichenized and allied fungi collected in mixed forests of western Wake County, North Carolina, USA. Evansia 34(1): 23-37.

Spribille, T./ Tuovinen, V./ Resl, P./ Vanderpool, D./ Wolinski, H./ Aime, M.C./ Schneider, K./ Stabentheiner, E./ Toome-Heller, M./ Thor, G./ Mayrhofer, H./ Johannesson, H./ McCutcheon, J.P. 2016: Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens. - Science 353(6298): 488-492.

The Lichens of North Carolina Website is being developed through a partnership between the North Carolina State Parks System (NC DPR) and the North Carolina Biodiversity Project (NCBP), a non-profit, education- and conservation-oriented association composed of field biologists specializing in taxonomy, ecology, and conservation of the state’s native species and ecosystems. This partnership serves NC DPR’s mission of providing "environmental education opportunities that promote stewardship of the state's natural heritage". It is also serves NCBP core interests in promoting awareness and interest in the general public concerning the state’s rich variety of native species, and in generating a wide base of support for the conservation of these resources.

The authors of the Lichens of North Carolina Website are:

Gary Perlmutter (UNC-Chapel Hill Herbarium Associate/Lichenologist)
Jason Hollinger (Lichenologist)
Tom Howard (webmaster, NC Division of Parks and Recreation)

Being developed.

How to Identify an Lichen

This website depends on accurately identified species records, but we are primarily interested in figuring out distributions, habitat associations, and conservation status based on those records. There are several other sources that are devoted more to identification and we recommend that they be consulted first in order to come up with at least an initial identification (a preliminary species name is, in fact, required to submit a record). Once an initial identification is made, however, you may then want to consult the Species Accounts in our website for additional information on the field marks and other information that we ourselves use as standards for diagnosing a particular species.

FIELD GUIDES

Lichens of North America
by Irwin Brodo (Author), Steve and Susan Sharnoff (Illustrators)

The lichens and allied fungi of Great Smoky Mountains National Park: an annotated checklist with comprehensive keys.
by James Lendemer, Richard Harris and Erin Tripp (Author)

Being developed.