This 100th anniversary volume of Bibliotheca Lichenologica, pays tribute to the diversity in lichenology. Multiple, cosmopolitan aspects of the research on lichens in its breadth are reflected in the large variety of subjects covered in 18 chapters by 37 authors from 13 countries.

The chapters document recent developments in taxonomy, phytogenetic analyses, phylogenetic research, fl oristic studies and lichen ecology, and - again - a large number of newly described taxa, keys to the identifi cation of Usnea, and details of current analytical work.

A personal review by Ingvar Kärnefelt of past and present contributors to lichenology. His biographical sketches provide a good measure of the multi-faceted nature of lichenology and of the expertise involved in its development, paying tribute to Bibliotheca Lichenologica's anniversary.

The volume was carefully edited by three prominent and active members of the lichenological community, Arne Thell, University of Lund, Sweden, Mark R. D. Seaward, University of Bradford, United Kingdom, and Tassilo Feuerer, University of Hamburg, Germany.

Lichenology often considered as a narrow scientific field by non-lichenologists. However, we know well, how diverse fields are represented in it. Consequently, it is not surprising for us that 100 volumes of the series Bibliotheca Lichenologica have been published on various research topics strictly focused on lichens. It took 36 years from 1973. The first scientific advisor for compiling the series was the famous professor Josef Poelt who was followed by the excellent editor of the series, Volkmar Wirth in 1983. He has devoted even more of his time to this activity since then.

Among the various topics covered, there were taxonomic and geographic monographs, morphological, lichenochemical, ecological and bioindication studies, proceedings of symposia, Festschrifts dedicated to the most outstanding colleagues. The earlier grey cover turned to be a fresh pale green during the years perhaps to show that the series is still young and many more important results will appear in the following volumes. There were changes also inside which make the volumes more attractive by publishing even colour photographs due to the recent digital techniques. A short summary is available on the back cover on the 100th volume not found on the cover of volume 99.

The hundredth volume – published as a celebration – contains a selection of papers representing topics as it was a selection of the volumes of the whole series to make it colourful like a rainbow. The first of the 18 chapters is an outline on the history of the series by Ingvar Kärnefelt and Volkmar Wirth. The other 35 authors write about the genus Traponora (Aptroot), Usnea (Randlane et al.), lichens of Armenia (Harutyunyan and Mayrhofer) or the Baltic Sea (Schiefelbein), estimation on the diversity of tropical lichens and lichens worldwide (Lücking et al.), the relation of lichens and the vegetation (Bültmann and Däniels),phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequences (Fedorenko et al.), cultured mycobionts and their lichen substances (Stocker-Wörgötter and Elix) and there are further important contributions not mentioned here.

Kärnefelt also writes about history of lichenology presenting exceptional personalities. It is a really difficult topic if he likes to concentrate only on 50 of them. To write about persons is a hard task and it can never be really objective. The evaluations and details on people lived in various times (era) cannot be in the same level with those of whom are living now, especially if they are young enough to produce more important results for lichenology in the future, too. Therefore, in his place I would have concentrated on those who had died already or would have increased the number of lichenologists presented to 100 (to be similar with the number of volumes). As editor of one of the volumes, I noticed a small spelling (?) error on p. 345: Scripta Lichenologica. Lichenological papers dedicated to Antonín Vězda was published in 1995 (Farkas et al. 1995) when Vězda was 75 (not 70) years old. Still this paper is one of the highlights of the whole volume, which represents a real milestone in history of lichenology. Therefore, the 100th volume is a must to have!

E. FARKAS

Acta Botanica Hungarica 52 (1-2), 2010

This edition of Bibliotheca Lichenologica is the 100th volume of the series and is dedicated to Dr. Volkmar Wirth, a celebrated lichenologist from Germany. Wirth’s contributions to lichenology number over 140 publications from 1969 to present including a paper in this volume. Wirth has been editor of this periodical since 1983.

The one-hundredth volume includes new research in the areas of updated phylogenies of larger groups of lichens, taxonomy, ecology, floristics, and photobionts of the lichen-forming fungi. The papers were submitted by an impressive number of lichenologists, mainly from Europe. Several of the papers focus on lichens found in understudied regions of the Continent. The colored photography in this issue adds to its value, clearly defining characters found in the taxonomic submissions. This book will be a wonderful reference for the taxonomic literature of lichens.

Of particular interest is the phylogenetic analyses of fungal families in Ascomycota, specifically Lobariaceae, Teloschistaceae, Thelocarpaceae, and Vezdaeaceae. These papers help to clarify relationships between lichen species within the families. Fedorenko, Stenroos, Thell, and Kärnefelt describe their phylogenetic analysis of xanthorioid lichens in Teloschistaceae, examining over 200 specimens from 50 genera, and looking at the ITS and mtSSU sequences. Högnabba, Stenroos, and Thell explain phylogenetic relationships and evolution of photobiont associates in Lobariaceae, including a number of taxa from the southern hemisphere. The phylogenetic position of ephemeral lichens in the Thelocarpaceae and Vezdaeaceae are examined by Lumbsch, Zimmermann, and Schmitt. The placement of Thelocarpon and Vezdaea does not appear to be in Lecanoromycetes, but a closer association with Pezizomycotina.

Clarification in lichen taxonomy is presented in two papers. Kondratyuk, Kärnefelt, Elix, and Thell discuss contributions to the family Teloschistaceae, with particular references to the Southern Hemisphere – thirty-five new species are described. A key to European species of Usnea by Randlane, Tõrra, A. Saag, and L. Saag presents 32 species with short descriptions, a key, images, and maps.

Lücking, Rivas Plata, Chaves, Umaña, and Sipman offer a paper describing how to estimate the number of tropical lichens that could potentially be found on a world-wide basis. A calculation of 28,000 species is based on species-area relationships. Other important papers include contributions by Aptroot on the genus Traponora, Hafellner on the genera Phacographa and Phacothecium, Knudsen and Kocourková studying three species of Polysporina, Bültmann and Daniëls examined lichen and vegetation relationships with a focus on the Thamnolietum vermicularis microcommunity, Harutyunyan and Mayrhofer on the lichens of Armenia, Hansen and Hasholt discuss the radial growth of twenty-two epilithic lichens on south-east Greenland, Schiefelbein on the maritime lichens of the Baltic Sea, and several other topics of interest.

Of particular interest is the paper by Ingvar Kärnefelt entitled “Fifty influential Lichenologists”. This piece provides short biographies of the lichenologists from past to present. Starting with Simon Schwendener in the 1880s, who is credited with discovering the lichen symbiosis, the paper takes you to prominent Lichenologists who are doing ground-breaking work in lichen phylogenetic, taxonomy and floristics of understudied regions of the world. If your favorite lichenologist is not mentioned, you might find them in one of the many pictures of lichenologists.

This anniversary volume of Bibliotheca Lichenologica is one that would be of interest to any lichenologist and mycologist wanting to complete the set of this publication. This volume gives us a better understanding of lichen taxonomy and floristics. For mycologists, the papers focusing on lichen-fungal phylogenies add insights into the Division Ascomycota. The ecological papers provide methodologies that could be useful to anyone involved with fungal vegetation studies.

This volume will be a collector’s choice to any mycologist and certainly lichenologists. The papers are well written and offer useful insights into what is currently known about several areas of lichenology.

Katherine Glew, University of Washington Herbarium

Inoculum 61(3), June 2010

Eighteen contributions (13 of which are covered in this Bibliography issue) by 37 contributors from 13 countries are included in the centenary issue tribute to this important and often featured here series (as can be seen above). The diversity of the title is represented by several fields: biography, diversity itself (How many tropical lichens are there ... really?), regional/national studies (Baltic coast, Armenia), ecology/vegetational studies (Austria/Greenland, and central Namib Desert), experimental culture (Rhizocarpon), growth (of Greenland glacier lichens) and historical, though the main emphasis (as that of the series itself) is systematics – nine papers, of which five contribute 64 taxonomic novelties, including four new genera, and three (on xanthorioid lichens, Lobariaceae and their photobionts (Högnabba et al., pp. 157-187) and ephemeral Thelocarpon/Vezdaea (Lumbsch et al., pp. 389-397)) have a molecular component.

Kärnefelt & Wirth (pp. 11-20), the latter current series editor since the early 1980s, set the scene for the celebration with a potted history of the series and complete list of the previous volumes.

Aptroot (pp. 21-30) extends the concept of his formerly monotypic genus Traponora to include a further four new species (although all are invalidated by the lack of Latin descriptions). A molecular phylogenetic analysis of xanthorioid lichens by Fedorenko et al. (pp. 49­-84), on 200 specimens representing 50 species, recognizes five well-supported groups (and seven subgroups), as a result of which three new genera (Jackelixia, constituting 11 species, and the monotypic Ovealmbornia and Xanthokarrooa) in the Teloschistaceae are introduced and 15 combinations proposed – including three based on new taxa only published later in the volume (see below).

Hafellner (pp. 85-121) describes the new lichenicolous genus Phacographa (Roccellaceae), its etymology intimating at its relation to both Opegrapha and Phacothecium, which is here resurrected from synonymy with Arthonia. Khodosovtsev et al. (pp. 189-197) describe two new species (Lecanora panticapaensis and Buelliella poetshii) from Ukraine, while Knudsen & Kocourkova (pp. 199-206) study the diversity and distribution of several species of Polysporina. Kondratyuk et al., in a lengthy and significant morphological study (pp. 207-282), describe and illustrate 35 new species (plus one further new name and combination) in the (mostly) southern hemisphere Teloschistaceae: 32 in Caloplaca and three in Xanthoria. However, of some concern to the validity of the taxonomic concepts employed, the latter have ‘already’ (strictly, in advance­ of their own publication!) been combined into the new genus Jackelixia earlier in the same volume (pp. 77/78, see Fedorenko et al., above), despite that study apparently being the last word on the group before the appropriate Flora of Australia volume appears.

Kärnefelt (pp. 283-368), in the longest contribution of the volume, reviews developments in the field from the 18th century through to the present day using the biographies of 50 influential lichenologists, from Acharius to Zahlbruckner and, in so doing, celebrates the diversity of the practitioners themselves. Randlane et al. (pp. 419-462) provide a multiple key to (32) European Usnea species: a dichotomous key, a synoptic key and an (online) interactive dichotomous key. There is a useful illustrated glossary, photos of diagnostic characters and distribution maps, followed by individual accounts for each species, with the practical appearance of a field guide.

On a final note, the external design of the cover has been made slightly more distinctive for this landmark issue (and beyond), though internally – with its customary quality of contribution and standard of editing – it remains unchanged, and indebted to its present editor.

Ken Hudson

Bibliography of Systematic Mycology, 12(9), April 2010

This volume celebrates the 100th issue of Bibliotheca Lichenologica, ‘a milestone in lichenological publishing’. Since its inception in 197 3, with the late Joseph Poelt as it’s first editor, succeeded from 1983 by Volkmar Wirth, the publisher Jörg Kramer has provided a magnificent service in providing a regular outlet for lichenological publications. Many of these have been long and detailed monographs which are difficult to publish elsewhere.

This celebration is made up of 18 chapters by 37 authors, all in English. These authors deal with aspects of lichenology from all over the world, and their names will be familiar to most of us. As with most compendia of this type, not all chapters will interest everyone, or to put it another way, there is something here for everyone.

Kärnefelt and Wirth start off with a chapter on the history of Bibliotheca Lichenologica 1973-2009, principally reviewing the key works in the series, and listing them all. This provides a brief but fascinating history of lichenology over that period. Kärnefelt goes on to a more controversial topic in a review ‘Fifty influential lichen- ologists’ which has brief biographies and fascinating photographs of the chosen persons. But, too many worthy souls are left out - maybe he should have chosen 100, or even 200? This controversial theme is continued in Lücking et al’s ‘How many tropical lichens are there ... really?’ Their numerical analysis predicts 14 000 lichens for the entire tropics and 28 000 worldwide. The last estimate greatly exceeds the prevailing global estimate of 20 000.

There are four papers dealing with ecology and distribution, including marine lichens of the Baltic, southern hemisphere Teloschistaceae, the Namibian desert and the Arctic-Alpine community Thamnolietum vermicularis. One paper deals with the physiological experiments on cultured mycobionts of Rhizocarpon. Molecular phylogeny and growth rates get one chapter each. Xanthorioid Teloschiszaceae are here divided into seven world-wide groups, illustrated with excellent colour plates, while evolution of lichen associations in the Lobariaceae discusses the Gondwanaland ancestor of all Sricra species, at least in the Southern Hemisphere. Systematics and phylogeny receive the most attention with seven chapters dealing with new genera in the Arthoniales, new species from the Ukraine, Polysporina from Asia, ephemeral lichens in the Thelocarpaceae and Vezdaeaceae and the new genus Traponora from the tropics. A further Teloschismceae chapter deals mainly with Australian Caloplaca and some Xanthoria sensu lato, again with excellent colour photographs. One of these systematics chapters is outstanding, ‘A key to European Usnea species’ by Randlane et al. This chapter of 43 pages, is alone worth the price of the book as it has colour photographs of each taxon together with detailed pictures of critical morphological features inserted at relevant points in the text. Finally, radial growth of lichens in South-East Greenland is dealt with, but the word ‘Greenland’ is missing from the contents page - a rare slip in an otherwise typo-free production.

In summary, this is an excellent publication with a very high standard of production and colour photography. Some of the chapters will be regularly consulted by me. I particularly enjoyed the freedom given for authors to express potentially controversial views. I would like to congratulate the publishers on the excellent service their publications have provided to the lichenological community, and hope their efforts will continue for the benefit of future generations.

Anthony Fletcher

The Journal of the Lichenologist Volume 32/2 - 2011

This volume is published to celebrate a major achievement in the history of lichenological publication – Bibliotheca Lichenologica reaching its 100th volume, 36 years after the series was initiated by Jörg Cramer in 1973 with Josef Poelt as its’ advisor. It soon became, and has continued to be, the place for the publication of monographs, symposia, and Festschrifts on lichens and lichenicolous fungi, and has been under the overall editorship of Volkmar Wirth since 1983. This volume starts with a history of the series and list of the works so far included and then continues with 17 further chapters; these are contributed by 37 authors from 13 countries and are all in English, reflecting the international status the series has evolved into from its Austro- German dominated early years. Hidden amongst these is an 85-page article on “Fifty influential lichenologists” compiled by Ingvar Kärnefelt, which has brief biographies with photographs of the 50 persons selected. Ingvar makes clear this is “very much the author’s personal choice.” The selection must have been difficult, and while I was personally gratified and humbled to find myself included, I was surprised not to find, amongst others, Ken Kershaw, William Lauder Lindsay (1829-1880), David Richardson, David Smith, Vittore Trevisan (1818-1897), or Wilhelm Zopf (1846-1909) – all of whom have done so much in laying the foundations of aspects of modern lichenology. I shall not suggest which persons might have been dropped in their stead . . ..

It is not clear to me how the topics and authors of the other contributions were selected, but they certainly live up to the title of the volume in the range of subjects involved. Most have a systematic bent, and all cannot be mentioned here. However, the most far-reaching of these has to be the molecular phylogenetic study of xanthorioid lichens by Natalya Fedorenko and colleagues in which three further new genera are recognized to add to the three others also introduced in recent years: Jackelixia, Ovealmbornia, and Xanthokarrooa. There is also a major study (73 pp.) of the Teloschistaceae in the Southern Hemisphere by Sergij Kondratyuk and others that includes the description of 35 new species, mainly in Caloplaca, with many illustrated in colour. Also sure to be widely used are the keys (both dichotomous and synoptic) to the 32 European species of Usnea by Tiina Randlane and her group in Tartu, which has the best macrophotographs (many in colour) of diagnostic details in the genus I have seen in print and further distribution maps and discussions of individual species. Topics of other systematic papers include ones on Phacothecium (resurrected for Opegrapha physciaria), Polysporina, Thelocarpaceae and Vezdaeaceae (to be excluded from Lecanoromycetes), and Traponora (with four new species added).

The issue of how many tropical lichens there might be on Earth is tackled by Robert Lücking and colleagues in the light of intensive studies in Costa Rica. Based on species-area relationships and ecosystem diversity, they come up with 7,000 for the neotropics, 14,000 for the entire tropics, and 28,000 worldwide – a much higher world figure than previous global estimates. There are also contributions on ecology from the Namibian desert to the Baltic coast, growthrates of 22 epilithic species in Iceland, the formation of lichen substances by cultured mycobionts, etc. It would have been great also to have more ecophysiology and biont-interaction biology included as these are increasingly fascinating areas of modern lichenology, but I can appreciate that the authors’ could have had problems in securing such papers for this publication.

In reflecting on the success and special place this series has assumed in lichenology, surely the time has come when it should be included in the Thompson Reuters ISI Journal Citation Reports and assigned an Impact Factor. This is especially so as some very comparable works of a similarly sporadic and largely monographic or symposial nature are already included, not least Studies in Mycology, which has the highest IF in the whole of the mycology group of journals at 4.625 in 2008 — even ahead of the prestigious Fungal Biology and Genetics which has 3.005! In any case, all serious lichenological libraries should maintain a standing order for the series and, if possible, secure any back issues they are missing.

MYCOTAXON vol. 110, 2009