Reorganization of the lichen herbarium, Univ. of Göttingen (GOET)

The lichen herbarium of the University of Göttingen (GOET) is one of the largest in Germany, with about 50,000 specimens. The majority of the collections are from Europe, with emphasis on Central Europe, among these are valuable historical collections of Ehrhart, G. F. W. Meyer, Grisebach, Solms-Laubach, and others (see Wagenitz G., 1982: Index Collectorum Principalium Herbarii Goettingensis. Syst.-Geobot. Inst., Univ. Göttingen, 214 pp). The lichen herbarium was organized in the early 1950s by Otto L. Lange (Würzburg) - at that time a scientific assistent at the University of Göttingen - based on the classification system of Zahlbruckner. This system being now obsolete, a new arrangement of the collections was urgently needed. With financial support of the university and the city of Göttingen, a complete reorganization and automation of the lichen herbarium is being undertaken. Specimens are being repacketed and provided with new labels, and nomenclature is being updated using recent catalogues (e.g. Nimis, Santesson). Correct names of exotic collections are straightened out with the expert help of Dr. H. J. Sipman (Berlin). The specimens are being arranged alphabetically by genus and species in carton boxes, with cross references for important synonyms. Label information is being stored in a database, which shall be made available in the future on the Internet. The lichen herbarium of Göttingen also houses the tropical lichen holdings from the University of Utrecht (herbarium U), including some 10,000 specimens mostly from South America. These specimens were transferred to GOET on a long-term loan basis in 1995, following the appointment of S. R. Gradstein as Professor of Botany at the University of Göttingen. These materials shall eventually be duplicated, with one set remaining in GOET and the other one being returned to Utrecht. The correct herbarium citation for the specimens from Utrecht remains "U". Information: Dr. Thomas Pröschold, Institute of Plant Sciences, Department of Systematic Botany, University of Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, e-mail: sysbot@gwdg.de.

S. R. Gradstein and Th. Pröschold, Göttingen

European lichenologists: a research visit to Helsinki?

The Department of Ecology and Systematics, University of Helsinki, and the European Commission have signed a contract concerning the 'Large-Scale-Facility status' of the Helsinki bryophyte/lichen herbaria and other relevant facilities. According to the contract, citizens of the EU-member countries (and those of Liechstenstein, Iceland, Norway, and Israel) can visit the Facility, free of charge and all costs of the visit covered by EU funds. The contract duration is 20 months, from 1st September 1998 to 30th April 2000. The minimum number of access offered to the visitors is 24 man-months. Within the Facility, access will be made to pertinent installations, depending on the type of research: Molecular Ecology and Systematics Laboratory, Ecological Laboratory, Division of Electron Microscopy, Botanical libraries (General, lichenological, bryological; others if necessary), Lichen and moss herbaria (Herbarium Generale; lichen herbaria of E. Acharius and W. Nylander; moss herbaria of S. O. Lindberg and V. F. Brotherus). The interested persons/research groups should send an application to: Prof. Timo Koponen. Department of Ecology and Systematics. P.O. Box 7. FIN-00014 University of Helsinki. Finland. The applications should consist of: 1) curriculum, 2) research plan (including the expected time and duration of visit), and 3) publication list of the applicant(s). The applications will be evaluated by our 'Users'Selection Panel', which consists of 5 members. The European Commission must approve the eligibility of the applicants' home institutions. The contract is intended to finance primarily short visits; for visits exceeding 2 months, a prior approval of the Commission is needed. Further information: Dr. J. Enroth (address as above), fax: (+ 358) 9 191 8656, e-mail: enroth@kmus.helsinki.fi.

J. Enroth, Helsinki

News from the California Lichen Society

The California Lichen Society has a new mailing address and a new President following elections held last winter. The new address is: The California Lichen Society, 362 Scenic Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95407. The new President is Judy Robertson at the above address. Her e-mail address is: JKSRR@aol.com. The California Lichen Society has grown from nine members in January of l994 to one hundred and fifty four in l998. The membership represents seventeen states and four foreign countries. The Bulletin of the Society is published twice yearly and includes peer reviewed articles, keys to California lichens, lichen lists for areas visited on field trips, and reports on recent activities of the Society and its members. Dues are $15 a year.

J. Doell, Pt. Richmond, CA

BioCISE - Call for co-operation

BioCISE (A Biological Collection Information Service in Europe - Resource Identification) is a multidisciplinary Concerted Action project funded by the European Commission (DG XII). Its aim is to identify and analyse databases of biological collection objects in Europe. The results of the survey will be made public on the World Wide Web and will serve to formulate a proposal for the creation of a European Biological Collection Information Service. Project participants include 20 scientists from 10 EU states and Israel. The co-ordinating project staff with 4 members is housed by the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. The term 'Biological Collection' is understood to include the following main categories: living collections (micro-organisms, botanical and zoological gardens), natural history collections (mainly in museums and universities), data collections (such as used in faunistic and floristic mapping projects), as well as new forms of biological collections (e.g. natural products, collections with the aim to preserve endangered species, and gene banks). The size of the collection is of secondary importance; on the contrary, we are specifically interested to include smaller and/or highly specialised collections. - By the end of 1999, the project is to develop specifications for a system serving both, the wide range of potential users of collection information as well as the researchers and curators of the collections themselves. For that purpose, a comprehensive survey is carried out, where possible in co-operation with other organisations and projects. Collection information and database resources are to be identified and documented, potential users detected, and technical possibilities for the implementation of the service evaluated. The results will be made public by a constantly updated WWW documentation (see http://www.bgbm.org/biocise/, also for more details concerning the project). Beginning in 1999, the results will be used to formulate a project proposal to obtain the funding for the implementation phase of the project. We should like to ask all institutions and organisations holding biological collection databases to participate in the survey. In case you did not receive the questionnaire, you can either download it from http://www.bgbm.org/biocise/TheProject/Survey/ or request it from the following address: BioCISE, BGBM, Königin-Luise-Str. 6-8, 14195 Berlin. e-mail: Biocise@zedat.fu-berlin.de. Fax: (+49) 30 84172 954.

W. G. Berendsohn, Berlin

Discontinued Journal

The abstracting journal Excerpta Botanica. Sectio A. Taxonomica et Chorologica (EBA), edited in connection with the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) by the Publishing House Gustav Fischer (Stuttgart), comprised periodically a detailed lichenological section supervised and partly composed by G. Follmann (Köln). Due to financial problems, the appearance of this useful journal had to be suspended in spring 1988. From 1959 to 1998, 65 volumes with more than 250,000 unweighted abstracts and about 2,000 comprehensive, critical reviews, were published. [with correction as indicated in ILN 31(2): 54]

G. Follmann, Köln

Umbilicariaceae Exsiccatae

At the moment B. Feige is compiling the next fascicle of Umbilicariaceae exsiccatae and he would be pleased to receive any material of Umbilicariaceae. He would need about 25-30 specimens for the distribution of the material. Specimens from all parts of the world, including America, Australia and Japan are most welcome. European species of special interest include: Lasallia hispanica, Umbilicaria torrefacta, U. polyrrhiza, U. rigida, U. subglabra, U. ruebeliana, U. krascheninnikovii, U. crustulosa, U. corsica, U. josiae, U. cinereorufescens, U. murina, U. laevis, U. polyphylla and U. decussata. Many thanks for the kind cooperation in advance.

B. Feige, Essen

Monographic Studies in the Cladoniaceae

Over the next five years the Smithsonian Institution and Boston University will host an international team of lichenologists studying the systematics of the family Cladoniaceae. The team, led by P. DePriest and S. Hammer, will include senior collaborators T. Ahti (Helsinki) and S. Stenroos (Turku), postdoctoral fellow D. J. Ellis, predoctoral fellows R. Yahr (Duke University) and M. Sikaroodi (George Mason University), visiting students K. Karkkainen and I. Oksanen (University of Helsinki), and undergraduate interns (Boston University). The goal of the project is to form an international team that will compile and enhance the current knowledge of Cladonia and its family Cladoniaceae. The team will produce a synopsis of the 11 genera and 500 species in the family Cladoniaceae for internet distribution, prepare monographic treatments for an eventual worldwide monograph, and develop new methods for examining phylogenetic relationships and species delimitation within the Cladoniaceae. By involving undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, taxonomic expertise in the Cladoniaceae will be passed to a new generation of lichen systematists. The project is funded by a five-year grant from the US National Science Foundation program - Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET) program and a two-year award from the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Studies program, and an Andrew W. Mellon Senior Fellowship to T. Ahti.

P. DePriest, Washington

Workshop: Progress in molecular studies of lichens-methods and applications

This is the second announcement of the workshop/symposium to be held from August 11-15, 1998 in Graz, Austria. The workshop will include three different kinds of sessions: 1) Talk Sessions - containing presentations of current research; 2) Discussion Fora -discussions on topical issues, moderated by leading scientists who will give introductory review papers on the topics, and, 3) Laboratory Seminars - methodological sessions where recent developments are presented. We still have space for additional presentations and poster contributions, please contact M. Grube for details! The workshop will be a good opportunity to meet most of the people currently involved in molecular lichenology, to present your results 'ahead of time'. Check our website (http://bkfug.kfunigraz. ac.at/~grubem/msl-workshop.htmlx) for further details, including the preliminary programme. Additional information on Austria, Styria, and Graz is available from: http://www.austria-info.at, http://steiermark.com, http://www.graz.at.

M. Grube and P. Blanz, Graz, M. Wedin, London

The iconography of Scopoli's lichens has been discovered!

This note was added at the last moment, just before going to press: in an article published in the journal Proteus, nr. 60, 1997, printed in Ljubljana (Slovenia), and written in Slovenian, Dr. A. Piltaver announces the discovery of 115 colour drawings by Thomas Hörman, unmistakably referring to the lichens described by Scopoli in his Flora Carniolica. The drawings were found in the Natural History Museum of Vienna. A complete Italian translation of Piltaver's article, and some further comments, will be published shortly in the Notiziario della Società Lichenologica Italiana. This important discovery may be of interest for several lichen taxonomists, because many of these drawings can be taken into account in the typification of Scopoli's lichens.

M. Tretiach, Trieste

Personalia

New Literature

A. SAAG, 1998 - Evolutionary relationships in some cetrarioid genera (lichenized Ascomycota). - Dissertationes Biologicae Universitatis Tartuensis 34: 1-45 + 9 articles published in various journals. - This is a splendid summary of recent studies on cetrarioid lichens by Saag and his collaborators. It is a printed Ph.D. thesis, which Andres Saag defended at the University of Tartu on 26 March 1996. Cladistic analyses are a specialty of Saag's study.

O. VITIKAINEN, T. AHTI, M. KUUSINEN, S. LOMMI & T. ULVINEN, 1997 - Checklist of lichens and allied fungi of Finland. - Norrlinia, 6: 1-123. Available from: Anne Mainas, Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 7, FIN-00014 Univ. Helsinki, Finland. Price: FIM 100 plus postage. - A checklist of lichens and lichenicololous and allied fungi occurring in Finland. 1,624 taxa are accepted (1,422 lichen species). Many are new to Finland. The provincial distribution of each taxon is indicated (note that in Finland there is a traditional system of 'biogeographic' provinces, and that administrative provinces are not used on labels of specimens or in floristic publications). The Finnish and Swedish vernacular names are given for many species and genera (including several new Finnish names). The species listed as threatened in Finland are classified into six categories. A special symbol is used to indicate if the nomenclatural type is from Finland. No validly published new names are introduced. The list includes many little known species whose status is uncertain.

T. Ahti, Helsinki

S. HUNECK & I. YOSHIMURA, 1996 - Identification of Lichen Substances. - Springer Verlag, Berlin, p. xi + 493, incl. 67 figs. Price: DM 390 (hardback). - This volume provides an up-to date and comprehensive alphabetic listing of lichen substances; each entry itemises such information as empirical and spatial formulae and TLC retention values for three commonly used solvent systems, and in each case specifies a lichen which contains the particular compound - all backed up by detailed bibliographic citations. This work is not a replacement for Cichita Culberson's invaluable guides (1969, 1970, 1977) which cross-references particular compounds to particular lichens, but provides a wealth of complementary and chemical data; it also includes those compounds newly discovered in lichens since 1976. A short introduction (9 pp.) on the history, meaning, value etc. of lichen substances is followed by a most useful chapter (113 pp.) on their identification, colour reaction, UV, IR and NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, microcrystallization (including 54 pages of photographic plates), TLC, HPLC, GLC and X-ray analysis. Although rather pricey, this is a fundamental work for all those involved in lichen chemistry.

M.R.D. Seaward, Bradford

B. MCCUNE & L. GEISER, 1997 - Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest. - Oregon State University, Corvallis, xiv + 386 p., ISBN 0-87071-394-9, (soft cover). Order from: Oregon State University Press, 101 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-6407. Credit card orders by phone: (+1) 541-737-3166; fax: (+1) 541-737-3170 e-mail: osupress@ccmail.orst.edu - Price: US$ 25.95. - This guide includes keys to 92 genera, about 460 species of macrolichens that are known (or can be expected) in Oregon and Washington. Individual species treatments with colour photographs and numerous line drawings are provided for 210 species, mostly those that are found in forested ecosystems. Each treatment contains species description, air pollution sensitivity, range, substrate, habitat, and notes that give references to similar or closely related species. The introductory chapter explains essential morphological terms, and the glossary at the end explains and illustrates all additional terms. The nomenclature is dealt with in a table that lists all names and their synonyms. This table is a must: the generic concept in lichens has changed very much since my salad days. This guide nicely complements Lichens of California by Hale & Cole, published in 1989, and it extends user-friendly lichens manuals northward to the Canadian border. The book is superbly illustrated with photographs by S. & S. Sharnoff and with very good line drawings by A. Mikulin. Critical comments? Keys may be too technical for the audience of this guide, but we will learn. I missed the scale in the photographs. A small 1 cm bar in a corner would greatly improve the interpretation of colour pictures. Without this scale, Peltigera venosa looks to me more like P. horizontalis. In the keys a bold type is used to mark the name of species that received full treatment. The authors missed this coding in the first group of keys to the genera. All parties involved in this publication should be congratulated for an excellent work. Our thanks should also go to the USDA Forest Service, whose contribution made this book relatively inexpensive.

A. Ceska, Vancouver

U. ARUP, S. EKMAN, I. KÄRNEFELT & J. E. MATTSON (eds.), 1997 - Skyddsvärda lavar i sydvästra Sverige. - SBF Förlaget, Lund, 297 pp., ISBN 91-972863-1-1. Hardbound. Order from SBT-Förlaget, Ö. Vallgatan 18, S-223 61 Lund, Sweden. Price: 300 SEK plus postage. - Serious criticism can be raised against this book: it is written in Swedish! I know other books on 'red-listed' organisms, and many have interest - if any - only at a very local level. I was wondering what these never-ending 'red-list' stories have to do with science, and how much with increasing deforestation by so many pages of glossy, but desperately empty pages. The title of this work could somehow justify its language: Lichens in need of protection in southwestern Sweden. Actually, the book is opened by a local historical introduction (how local, however, are Linnaeus, Retzius, the two Fries, Hulting, Malme, Du Rietz, Degelius, Almborn, etc.?), followed by the usual chapter on general biology plus glossary, and by a detailed, and very well done, description of the survey area. The results, apparently, refer to the survey area only. By careful reading, however, one is astonished by the quantity and quality of information assembled by the authors. They have visited 896 localities in five counties, and have compared old and recent records; for five localities it was even possible to compare complete floristic lists. The book treats topics such as the modifications of local lichen floras and their causes, air pollution and forest management, lichens found in different habitats and on different trees, lichen communities, forest continuity (with a newly prosed list of indicator species), recommendations for protecting special habitats with a high conservation value. All of this is treated with such a degree of detail, and so well, as to raise the interest of the book far beyond the narrow limits of southwestern Sweden. Those who cannot understand the difficult-sweet music of Swedish can still find a point of interest in the nice colour photographs, and in the tables and diagrams illustrating the text. The final third of the book is occupied by a list of 116 red-listed species, with a wealth of information including brief morphological and ecological descriptions, protection status with a discussion, distribution maps, lists of localities, relevant literature, and, especially, by 132 splendid colour photographs. Here many of us have the opportunity of admiring, for the first time, such species as Biatora gyrophorica, Gyalideopsis anastomosans, Opegrapha sorediifera, Scoliciosporum pruinosum (admittedly, none of them can ever hope of receiving an albeit sour apple from a lichenological Paris...). The iconographic part, by itself, would be enough for recommending this work to a wider international audience. The book is hardbound with a nice colour picture, the printing is neat and the paper is glossy, but, positively, nobody could ever consider it as a contribution to deforestation. Besides the language, what remains to be criticized? Minor details, such as the absence of authors' citations after the species' names, a few controversial points here and there, and - as far as my Swedish can permit - three or four printing errors. There is only a single comment left, and this is for the authors: congratulations!

P.L. Nimis, Trieste