Flora of New Zealand Series

RECENT LICHENOLOGICAL EXPLORATION IN NEW ZEALAND 1985–2005

The publication of Flora of New Zealand Lichens in 1985 sparked a considerable renaissance of interest in the New Zealand lichen mycobiota, from both local and international lichenologists and naturalists, and this interest, which has continued unabated, has contributed in large part to the discovery here of many novelties, added to the known ranges of many taxa, and made necessary this greatly expanded second edition. A series of field meetings bringing together the Australasian lichenological community were organised in New Zealand to explore regional lichen diversity. These were: Cass (3–6 November 1989, organised by Allan Fife; 15–19 February 1991, organised by Philippa Horn); Nelson (28–31 January 1993, led by Jack Elix, Doug Verdon, Heinar Streimann and Leif Tibell); Wellington (10–13 November 1995, organised by Barbara Polly), Dunedin (12–16 November 1998 (organised by John Steel, Jennifer Bannister, David Galloway and Peter Johnson). In 2000 the Southern Connection III Congress was held at Lincoln (16–22 January) and at this meeting David Galloway organised a Symposium "Southern Hemisphere Lichen Floras: what are the connections?" in an effort to get Southern Hemisphere lichenology recognised in this forum, and a day was spent in the field at Kelly's Creek, Arthur's Pass, and Woolshed Hill.

The Australasian Lichenological Newsletter, a regional biennial publication, conscientiously and capably edited by Jack Elix (Canberra) from 1982 to 1996, recorded an increasing number of papers and reports on New Zealand lichens, and Jack established therein the valuable series "Additional Lichen Records from New Zealand" and "Recent Literature on Australasian Lichens" – a forum that allowed local and visiting lichenologists to publish on interesting discoveries and new records, and a continuing archive of regional lichenology that together chart regional progress in a variety of fields. The ALN changed its name to Australasian Lichenology in July 1997 (Vol. 41) and under its new editor, Bill Malcolm, and an editorial board of Jack Elix, Gintaras Kantvilas and Pat McCarthy, the journal introduced colour art work, and the splendid lichen macro-photography for which Bill Malcolm is widely recognised. It is now one of the world's accepted regular lichen journals, and it records contributions on Australian and New Zealand lichenology from both local and international lichenologists – a tribute to the fact that lichenology has now an established place and agenda in the South Pacific.

Although until the late 1980s visits from overseas lichenologists provided stimulus and interest, increasingly, local lichenologists have discovered areas of interest and growing expertise, using Flora of New Zealand Lichens as a starting point.

Bill and Nancy Malcolm (Nelson) in recent years have embraced lichens with enthusiasm and drive, collecting particularly in the Nelson area, making a special study of and coordinating local interest in foliicolous lichens, and through their superbly illustrated and informative publications (Malcolm & Malcolm 1989, 2000, 2001), have made the visual glories of the New Zealand lichen mycobiota very much better known and appreciated.

Peter Johnson (Dunedin) and Pat McCarthy (Canberra) have had a fruitful collaboration on aquatic lichens and saxicolous pyrenocarps, leading to the discovery of many novelties, and a long-overdue recognition of an intriguing and largely unguessed at specialist lichen mycobiota (McCarthy & Johnson 1995, 1997, 1998; Johnson & McCarthy 1997).

Wendy Nelson, Barbara Polly and Carol West, after attending the first Cass Workshop, formed an interest group, "the Lichen Lot", in Wellington for several years at Te Papa and began systematic collecting of lichens from the Wellington and Nelson Lakes areas. Barbara is now Hon. Lichen Curator at Te Papa, and a helpful presence there to both local and visiting lichenologists.

On my return to New Zealand in November 1994, I was fortunate to live in Central Otago from 1995 to 2004, and have come to know the extraordinarily diverse lichen mycobiota of the Central Otago mountains in much greater detail than formerly, uncovering many more examples of bipolar distributions in the process (see Galloway 2003b). I have also had the opportunity of working with the now excellently curated lichen collections at Lincoln (CHR), Dunedin (OTA), Wellington (WELT) and Auckland (AK) and their friendly and helpful staffs, and have collected widely in many parts of New Zealand, especially Northland and the West Coast of the South Island, regions that I had not botanised in much, or at all, previously. This has allowed me a much wider field experience of New Zealand lichens than I had when I compiled the first edition from a London museum base.

Dan Blanchon (Auckland) and Jennifer Bannister (Dunedin) in recent years studied the taxonomy and regional distribution of species of Ramalina, producing the first detailed set of computergenerated distribution maps for a New Zealand lichen genus (Bannister et al. 2004). They now propose a combined study of Usnea as a natural extension of their Ramalina work.

We have all benefited from the visits here of our Australian colleagues at various times, especially of Jack Elix, Alan Archer, Bill Ewers, Jen Johnstone, Simone Louwhoff, Pat McCarthy, Kath Ralston, David Eldridge and the late Doug Verdon.

Helmut Mayrhofer (Graz) has returned to New Zealand several times since his inital visit in 1981, bringing with him graduate students to study Rinodina and related taxa.

The late Mason Hale (Washington) visited New Zealand three times (December 1980, September 1981, and January–February 1984) usually prior to or after a trip to Antarctica to investigate cryptoendolithic lichens. His visit in 1984 was primarily to study variation in the Parmelia testacea complex, the results of which he later published (Hale 1987) in his monograph of Parmelia s. lat. (Galloway 1993a). His extensive collections of New Zealand lichens are in US.

Hannes Hertel (Munich) visited in 1985, in company with Helmut Mayrhofer, to re-collect important Lecidea sites, originally collected by H.H. Allan or J.S. Thomson (Zahlbruckner 1941), and over several weeks he made excursions from Auckland to Foveaux Strait, subsequently recording his observations in a series of important papers (Hertel 1985b, 1987b, 1989, 2001).

Alan Archer has made considerable contributions to our understanding of Cladonia, Pertusaria and genera in the Graphidaceae, and I am much indebted to him for his assistance with these groups (Archer 1986a, 1991a, 1991c, 1993; Archer & Bartlett 1986; Archer & Elix 1993b, 1995a; Archer & Malcolm 1997).

The late Doug Verdon (Canberra, 1920–2000) had a special interest in Leptogium and made many perceptive comments on New Zealand collections (see for example Verdon et al. 1996), very many of which bear his comments and annotations.

Per Magnus Jørgensen (Bergen) has had an enthusiastic and informed interest in the family Pannariaceae in New Zealand, dating back 30 years to our first paper together, describing Erioderma sorediatum (still one of my great favourites, the paper and the lichen), and he has added many novelties to this family here over the years (see for example Jørgensen 1998b, 1999a, 2002e, 2004a; Jørgensen & Galloway 1989; Jørgensen et al. 2000). He has also tirelessly and cheerfully provided me with Latin diagnoses over very many years; my debt to him is considerable.

Leif Tibell (Uppsala) visited New Zealand with his family from September 1980 to July 1981, undertaking extensive fieldwork in connection with his studies on Southern Hemisphere Caliciales, being based in the herbarium of Botany Division, DSIR, at Lincoln. This was a natural extension to his work on Northern Hemisphere Caliciales, which he had begun under the direction of his supervisor Rolf Santesson. Like his supervisor, he had, almost from the start, very wide lichenological horizons and his developing research agenda encompassed no less than a whole order! He collected from Northland and Taranaki in 1983, and also visited with Mats Wedin in 1990 and 1992. Besides making comprehensive collections of Caliciales, he made extensive general lichen collections from Northland to Fiordland, his numerous, beautifully curated specimens (UPS) rivalling those of Du Rietz in scope and geographical range. Many lichens either new to New Zealand or major extensions of known ranges derive from Leif 's collections. Leif Tibell's publications on Caliciales from New Zealand span nearly two decades, and represent one of the major lichenological research agendas for the region (Tibell 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984a, 1984b, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999b, 2002; Tibell & Ryman 1995). He also magnanimously prepared several generic accounts of Caliciales (i.e. Calicium, Chaenotheca, Coniocybe, Microcalicium, Sphinctrina) for Flora of New Zealand Lichens (Galloway 1985a). His magisterial survey of Swedish lichen collectors abroad (Tibell 1999b) mentions several famous collectors from New Zealand, but is silent regarding his own considerable achievements and contributions in the region.

Göran Thor (Stockholm & Uppsala) visited sites in the North Island, and herbaria (AK, WELT) in October 1985, in connection with his studies on Chiodecton (Thor 1990) and Cryptothecia (Thor 1997).

Mats Wedin (Uppsala & Umeå), following on from studies initiated by his supervisor Leif Tibell, began a systematic study of the family Sphaerophoraceae in cool temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere, visiting New Zealand with Leif Tibell in 1990, 1992, and independently in 1995. From these visits and the collections and observations made during them, Wedin has added substantially to our knowledge of the Sphaerophoraceae and the Calycideaceae and their component genera Bunodophoron, Calycidium, Leifidium (which he described) and Sphaerophorus (Wedin 1990, 1992, 1993a, 1993b, 1995a, 1995b, 2001a, 2001b, 2002; Wedin & Tibell 1991); he has investigated phylogenetic relationships of the families Sphaerophoraceae and Caliciaceae and of the genera Austropeltum and Neophyllis (Wedin & Tibell 1997; Wedin et al. 1998, 2000a, 2000b, 2002; Wedin & Döring 1999); ascoma development in Neophyllis (Döring et al. 1999); and he has added to our knowledge of cool temperate Southern Hemisphere lichenicolous fungi (Wedin & Hafellner 1998).

Roland Moberg and Björn Owe-Larsson (Uppsala) visited New Zealand in April 1992 and collected in various sites in Northland and at Tongariro National Park, collecting Labyrintha implexa from the latter locality, with Owe-Larsson being one of the authors of the newly described Labyrintha (Malcolm et al. 1995a), and also adding new records of Physcia from their collections (Galloway & Moberg 2005).

Thorsten Lumbsch (Marburg/Essen/Chicago) visited New Zealand in 1985 in company with Aino Henssen (Marburg), and he has subsequently made significant contributions to our understanding of the genera Diploschistes and Lecanora especially (Lumbsch 1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1994; Lumbsch & Elix 1989, 2003, 2004; Lumbsch & Feige 1992, 1994, 1996; Lumbsch et al. 1994a).

Volkmar Wirth (Stuttgart) visited New Zealand in November 1981, and November 1995, making good collections (now in STU) and recording several novelties (Wirth 1997).

Antonín Vězda (Tábor) and Fausto Ceni (Italy) visited New Zealand for three weeks in April 1997, and were hosted around sites in Nelson and various parts of the South Island by Bill and Nancy Malcolm. During this visit Vězda collected several taxa for his exsiccat.

Ingvar Kärnefelt and Patrik Frödén (Lund) spent a fortnight in New Zealand in February 1999, collecting members of the Teloschistaceae, especially Caloplaca, Xanthoria and Teloschistes with several of their collections being new records (Malcolm et al. 1999). Patrik published a preliminary account of Teloschistes in Australasia (Frödén 2000), and his regional monograph on the genus is expected shortly.

Mike Thomas (Dunedin/Arizona) undertook a Marsden-funded investigation of the biology of the nitrogen-fixing genus Pseudocyphellaria and related taxa in the Lobariaceae, showing the genus to be heterogeneous as currently circumscribed (Thomas et al. 2002). Rick Kooperberg (Auckland) is studying urban lichen communities and Allison Knight (Dunedin) has recently commenced a study of the alpine lichen Thamnolia and its associated microfungi.

Arve Elvebakk and Jarle Werner Bjerke (Tromsø) visited New Zealand briefly in 2003 in connection with their ongoing studies on austral lichen populations, especially of green algal species of Pannaria (Elvebakk) and of Menegazzia (Bjerke).

Although lichenology in New Zealand is now a soundly based scientific discipline, supported by an extensive literature and by well-curated regional and national lichen herbaria, it desperately needs the attention of a new generation of students, to maintain and enhance the tradition of lichenological knowledge that has developed here in New Zealand over the past 50 years. Hopefully the present lichen Flora will potentiate and encourage that interest.