This volume contains 33 peer-reviewed contributions by 70 authors, many leaders in their field, and is wide-ranging in its taxonomic scope. A total of 38 new taxa (35 species, 2 genera, 1 family) are described, including 8 honorific names for Tom Nash in recognition of his lichenological legacy. Taxonomic treatments cover regions throughout the world, including coastal Chile (Niebla, Sclerophyton), Îles Kerguelen (Aspiciliopsis, Placopsis), the Sonoran Desert (Roccella), the Southern Hemisphere (Buellia subalbula-group), Thailand (Malmidea), and the West Indies (Phyllopsora). Molecular phylogenetic analyses are also integrated in 7 studies and 8 include taxonomic keys. Lichens and lichenicolous fungi from over 30 genera are covered (e.g., Acarospora, Bulbothrix, Caloplaca, Candelaria, Canoparmelia, Circinaria, Cliostomum, Endococcus, Enterographa, Holospora, Lecidea, Lichenochora, Merismatium, Niebla, Parmotrema, Pseudopeltula, Punctelia, Rinodina, Solenopsora, Usnea, Xanthoparmelia), many wonderfully illustrated (40 b/w-figures and >120 images in 16 colour plates). Numerous other figures and tables document distributions, chemistry, and morphology for the taxa included.

The volume dedicated to Thomas H. Nash III on the occasion of his 65th birthday also offers analyses and thought provoking discussion related to aspects of lichen ecology and the use of lichens in biomonitoring, and a biography and bibliography spanning the career of T.H. Nash III (~40 yrs.) are also included.

Thomas Hawkes Nash III has worked on lichenology especially on lichen ecology, ecophysiology for 40 years. He is probably the best known about the following books edited by him: “Lichen biology” or the “Lichen flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region I–III”. On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of his birth a special volume containing 33 papers by 70 authors (!) is dedicated to him.

Bennett established high Cu concentration in lichens growing in protected areas in S-Arizona. Howe and Lendemer studied a recolonised lichen community near a former zinc smelter. Riddell et al. followed changes in lichen composition and cover due to declining air quality in S-California. The effect of pine oak forest management was studied on lichens in Mexico by Pérez Pérez et al. McCune and Printzen analysed distribution and climatic niches of Lecanora varia group in western USA. Rosentreter and Debolt compared the lichen flora and environmental conditions for lichens in Florida and Arizona. The relation between distribution and change between various environmental changes was investigated by Will-Wolf et al. in Wisconsin, USA. All the other papers are on taxonomy and systematics covering altogether large taxonomic fields (30 genera, among them 2 new for science: Malmidea for Lecidea piperis group, Trinathotrema for Ocellularia stictidea and Conotrema lumbricoides) and geographical areas (from the Cape Verde via the Kerguelen Islands, Chile, Australia to S-Africa). It is difficult to choose the most interesting examples of the 35 new species, like the lichen Caloplaca tomnashii and the lichenicolous fungus Lichenochora hyperphysciae or the lichenicolous lichen Acarospora nashii. For such a high number of new taxa, a list would have been useful to add to the volume. Also, an index for all the names would be important for an easier handling of the enormous amount of data gathered in the volume. Concerning to the wide range of topics, the volume is also very rich in methods applied from standard to fluorescence microscopy or those of mathematical statistics or molecular biology, various programs for climatic modelling and phylogenetic analysis were also used.

The volume contains 16 excellent colour plates illustrating seven papers. Unfortunately from the legends of the colour plates the indications about the paper where the plate is belonging to are missing.

Publications by Thomas Nash are listed on 14 pages. These are between 1971 and 2010 (some are missing, e.g. those in Bibliotheca Lichenologica 105, 2010), however we need to keep an eye on a new “chapter” starting with 2011. A rather sad paragraph is added to the preface as endnote, telling about the hard financial/personal situation at lichen herbarium of the Arizona State University what is now in danger – it would be the here celebrated Thomas Nash’s valuable and in words inexpressible legacy (50,000 specimens collected by himself of the altogether 110,000 lichen specimens!). The chapter on “The natural history dilemma in the age of bioinformatics” (by Lücking et al. on pp. 204–206) is highly recommended to read and also worth for consideration. Thomas and Corinna Nash did a lot on bioinformatics that for each specimen the collection information would be accessible online, also that virtual floras could exist. In my opinion their purpose is the easy accessibility (in time and space) and not that the information available on a PC could replace the real world. Herbarium specimens ever collected are preserving a part of nature from the past. Future generations will never have the possibility to collect information held in these specimens if they are not kept properly or handled by professional care. With recent directions of “development” we take the chance away from them for being able to ever reconstruct nature damaged considerably due to human activities by now.

E. FARKAS

Acta Botanica Hungarica 53 (3-4), 2011, p. 442-443

Mit dem 106. Band der Bibliotheca Lichenologica wurde ein umfangreicher Sammelband vorgelegt, der dem bekannten Lichenologen Thomas H. Nash III zu seinem 65. Geburtstag gewidmet ist. Entsprechend breit sind die Themen gefächert.

Der einführende Beitrag (Bates & Bungartz) gibt einen Überblick über den Lebensweg und die wissenschaftliche Entwicklung von Tom, wie ihn seine Freunde nennen, seine Vielseitigkeit und Breite (Ökologie, Biomonitoring, Physiologie, Taxonomie), seine vielfältige internationale Zusammenarbeit mit Kollegen aus der ganzen Welt, seine zahlreichen Neubeschreibungen und beachtlichen Aufsammlungen. Etwas antiquiert wirkt hier die Verwendung von römischen Ziffern für die Seitennummerierung (V–XVI), zumal die beeindruckende Publikationsliste von Tom räumlich getrennt erst am Ende des Bandes zu finden ist, dort aber integriert in den Hauptteil des Bandes, der mit arabischen Ziffern durchnummeriert wurde.

Von den vielen interessanten Beiträgen kann man nicht alle im Einzelnen behandeln. Erwähnenswert sind jedoch die zahlreichen Neubeschreibungen von immerhin 35 neuen Arten, darunter zwei lichenicole Vertreter (Lichenochora hyperphysciae Etayo und Endococcus thelommatis Kocourk. & K.Knudsen), zwei neuen Gattungen (Malmidea Kalb, Rivas Plata & Lumbsch, Trinathotrema Lücking, Rivas Plata & Mangold) und einer neuen Familie (Malmidiaceae Kalb, Rivas Plata & Lumbsch). Während Usnea nashii eingezogen und in die Synonymie von U. lichtensteinii verwiesen wurde, gibt es unter den Neubeschreibungen zahlreiche Arten, die zu Ehren von Tom Nash benannt wurden: Buellia tomnashiana Giralt & van den Boom, Acarospora nashii K.Knudsen, Caloplaca tomnashii S.Y.Kondr., Elix & Kärnefelt, Punctelia nashii Marcelli & Canêz, Bulbothrix thomasiana Benatti & Marcelli, Canoparmelia nashii Jungblut & Marcelli, Niebla nashii Sipman und die neue Gattung Trinathotrema, deren Name als Anagramm von Thomas (tho) Nash (na) III (tri) gebildet wurde. Das allein drückt schon die große Wertschätzung aus, die dem Jubilar von Kollegen aus aller Welt entgegengebracht wird. Hinzu kommen mindestens 18 Neukombinationen, S. 164 –166 werden 27 weitere in der Gattung Malmidea aufgelistet. Es ist ein wenig schwierig, hier den Überblick zu behalten, da – anders als bei der Herzogia – eine zusammenfassende Liste leider fehlt.

Unter den insgesamt 33 Beiträgen finden sich neben taxonomischen Artikeln auch solche mit mehr floristischem und biogeographischem Inhalt, die sich mit der Erfassung der Flechten eines bestimmten Gebietes oder aber der Verbreitung ausgewählter Arten in einer bestimmten Region oder sogar weltweit (z. B. Roccella-Arten) beschäftigen.

Neue molekular-genetische Untersuchungen werden vorgelegt und entsprechende Stammbäume präsentiert. Sehr gut ist, dass in vielen Artikeln, in denen Neubeschreibungen von Arten oder neue Bearbeitungen von Gattungen oder Gruppen vorgenommen wurden, auch Schlüssel zu finden sind, die die Bestimmung der neuen Arten und/oder die Einordnung der neuen Erkenntnisse ermöglichen.

Nicht unerwähnt bleiben sollte, dass sich auch einige Artikel mit der Auswirkung von Luftverschmutzung auf die Flechtenverbreitung sowie ihre Morphologie oder mit solch speziellen Effekten beschäftigen, wie sie von Kupferminen oder Zinkhütten ausgehen. Meist handelt es sich dabei um langjährige Beobachtungen der Auswirkungen bzw. Veränderungen.

Ungewöhnlich für die Bibliotheca Lichenologica, aber sehr begrüßenswert, sind die 16 Farbtafeln am Ende. Besser bzw. anwenderfreundlicher wäre es zwar gewesen, wenn die farbigen Abbildungen direkt in die zugehörigen Texte integriert worden wären, aber das hätte diesen Band sicher noch weiter verteuert. Keine Frage des Preises ist die etwas nachlässige Zusammenstellung des Inhaltsverzeichnisses, in das sich einige Fehler in der Schreibweise der Namen der Autoren eingeschlichen haben (gleich 2× Van Den Boom statt van den Boom, Maccune statt McCune, Debolt statt DeBolt). Das tut jedoch dem Inhalt keinen Abbruch.

Alles in allem ein sehr inhaltsreicher und informativer Band. Ein Großteil der behandelten Arten kommt jedoch nicht in Europa vor. Als Würdigung für den Jubilar überwiegen Artikel, die sich mit auf dem Amerikanischen Kontinent vorkommenden Flechten beschäftigen, aber auch Arten aus Australien, Thailand, Südafrika, von den Kanarischen Inseln, den Kerguelen- Inseln, den Kapverden usw. sind darunter. Das ist, neben dem nicht gerade geringen Preis, sicher ein Grund, weshalb diesen Band der Bibliotheca Lichenologica wohl nur all diejenigen kaufen werden, die sich mit Flechten aus „Übersee“ beschäftigen. In Bibliotheken, die auch ein wenig lichenologisch ausgerichtet sind, sollte dieser Band jedoch auf keinen Fall fehlen.

Regine Stordeur (Halle/S.)

Herzogia 25 (1), 2012

This Festschrift (a term used in the headings of all the papers but not on the title page) is devoted to Tom Nash on occasion of his 65th birthday and his retirement as Full Professor at the School of Life Science of Arizona State University. It therefore starts with an appreciation and biographical notes by the first two editors (p. v-xvi) and closes with an anonymous bibliography of his publications (p. 409-422). To the list of all his activities and achievements it should be added that he organized with his team the very successful IAL-6 Conference in Asilomar (California) in 2008.

The remaining 33 scientific papers by 70 authors reflect the diversity of Tom’s lichenological interests ranging from biomonitoring and ecology to physiology and systematics. Those papers dealing with systematics include 35 new species, 2 new genera and 1 new family. Unfortunately there is no list of these taxonomic novelties in the book.

The new genera are Trinathotrema Lücking, Rivas Plata & Mangold and Malmidea Kalb, Rivas Plata & Lumbsch; for the latter, the new family Malmideaceae is described by the same authors within the Lecanorales. Their paper, co-authored also by H. T. Lumbsch, is entitled The phylogenetic position of Malmidea, a new genus for the Lecidea piperis- and Lecanora granifera-groups (Lecanorales, Malmideaceae), inferred from nuclear and mitrochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences, with special reference to Thai species (p. 143-168) and is one of the major taxonomic contributions of this volume. It included a key to 11 Malmidea species occurring in Thailand and 27 additional new combinations in that genus. The new genus Trinathotrema is described in a paper by R. Lücking with nine co-authors on the Natural history of Nash’s pore lichens, Trinathotrema (Ascomycota: Ostropales: Stictidaceae) (p. 187-210). The name is an imperfect anagram in honour of Thomas (-tho) Nash (-na) III (-tri). At present there are two species (T. lumbricoides and T. stictideum) within the new genus. The paper is also of special interest for all lichenologists involved in biodiversity informatics as it discusses the natural history dilemma in the age of bioinformatics in a special chapter (p. 204-206) which provides some interesting figures and facts which might be of importance when applying for grants in these areas. Finally the monographic treatment of The lichen genus Phyllopsora (Ramalinaceae) in the West Indies (p. 319-351) by E. Timdal, which covers 34 species (four new to science), should be mentioned. With these three subjective examples the worldwide importance of the new volume is highlighted, but many other papers could have been selected for the same purpose. The book ends with 16 plates presenting colour photographs for several papers of the volume.

Unfortunately, in the table of contents (p. III-IV) the spelling of some author’s names has been changed compared to their articles (Mccune for McCune, Van Den Boom for van den Boom & Debolt for DeBolt).

Nevertheless, the book is a valuable and necessary addition for every generally orientated lichen library, and a worthy recognition of the lichenological legacy of Tom Nash. It is very sad that the editors had to finish their appreciation for Tom with an endnote (p. xvi) saying that Arizona State University has “moth-balled” the ASU lichen herbarium after Tom’s retirement which currently makes it impossible to use this very important resource, a major drawback for lichen studies in North America and far beyond.

The Editor

International Lichenological Newsletter 44 (1)

International Association for Lichenology

This volume is a wonderful way of recognizing the far-reaching influence of Tom Nash in the field of lichenology. Because of its nature as a festschrift, it is a mixture of papers that, among a variety of topics: describe new species; recombine and reorganize other species; and test hypotheses about distribution of lichens with respect to climate and pollutants. It is a valuable collection for lichenologists and ecologists, especially those interested in the use of lichens as air quality monitors.

The introductory article describes Tom’s career as a lichenologist, and is filled with photos that illustrate his teaching, collaborations, and achievements. It emphasizes his interest in the big picture, but also his recognition that small details such as taxonomy and physiological experiments are of great importance in achieving a comprehensive view. That 26 of the 33 papers in this volume are about taxonomy clearly shows Tom inspired and aided many people in taxonomic work.

But the greater impact of this festschrift is in highlighting the legacy Tom leaves in ecological monitoring. Howe and Lendemer’s paper revisits the lichen desert downwind of the Palmerton zinc mine, which Tom described in his landmark study in 1972. They found increased lichen cover and diversity, indicating recovery following the cessation of smelting in 1980. Bennett’s article describes high concentrations of airborne copper in lichens in Chiricahua and Saguaro national protected areas. Riddell et al. revealed lichen community shifts in the area surrounding Los Angeles by comparing historical records with surveys in the 1970’s and 2008, and found that deposition levels of nitrogen heavily influence the present communities, decreasing species diversity in general but increasing occurrence and abundance of nitrophilous species.

Other papers address lichen communities’ responses to their habitat, and ways of quantifying those responses across time and space, backing out further and further to get a larger view of our world. Will- Wolf et al. investigated the morphological responses of lichens, including their photobionts, to air pollution. Perez Perez et al. found that management of a pine-oak forest in Oaxaca, Mexico maintained high lichen diversity by retaining gaps, coarse woody debris, shrub layer, and uneven age distribution of trees. Zedda et al. tested the use of morphospecies groups in assessing diversity of lichen soil crusts in southern Africa. McCune and Printzen present a model that uses continental influence and annual temperature as main factors to predict distributions of species in the Lecanora varia group, a baseline for future studies watching the effects of climate change in the western United States. Rosentreter and DeBolt compared lichen floras of Florida and Arizona, and suggest that the mountains of Arizona represent refugia of a common flora prior to the Hypsithermal interval.

This volume is an interesting albeit diverse collection of papers. Publishing them as a festschrift is a wonderful tribute to Tom Nash, but at the same time makes them somewhat difficult to access for research purposes. An informative addition would be a list of Tom Nash’s students and postdoctoral fellows.

Daphne Stone, Ph.D.

inoculum, Supplement to Mycologia, Vol. 64(2), April 2013
Newsletter of the Mycological Society of America