The ABLS has decided to meet by themselves in 2002. The meetings in 2000 and 2001 will be with the Botanical Society of America and other botanical societies in Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico, respectively. In preparation for this 2002 meeting, we are soliciting proposals from ABLS members who would be interested in hosting the meeting. This would entail organizing fieldtrips (usually more than at regular meetings), as well as housing accommodations for ca. 100 participants, and a conference room. The President-Elect at the time will organize the scientific program. If you are interested, please send a brief proposal on the site (including housing accommodations) to: Bill Buck (bbuck@nybg.org) and Bob Egan (robert_egan@unomaha.edu).

The Third International Congress on Symbiosis (TICS) will take place at the Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany between august 13-19^th, 2000. The congress will cover the following sections (session Chairs in brackets): Bacterial Symbiosis and Defense (Werner), Symbiosis of Algae (Maier), Ecology, structure and evolution of symbiotic Eumycota (Kost), Physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of fungal symbiosis (Franken), Lichen symbiosis and parasymbionts (Henssen), Animal and Marine Symbiosis (Beck & Lingelbach), Other Symbiotic Interactions and the Borderline to Parasitism (Weber). Please note the deadlines for registration. The 2^nd znnouncement can be found at: http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~b_morpho/symbio.html, where you can directly fill in the forms for registration and presentation. Those without internet connection, but with e-mail, can ask for the second announcement to: weberh@mailer.uni-marburg.de. Otherwise you can contact: Prof. Hans Christian Weber, Chair, 3^rd International Congress on Symbiosis, Philipps-Universität/Fb-Biologie-Spezielle Botanik und Mykologie, D-35032 Marburg, phone :(+49) (0)6421-2822091.

From 9-14 July 2000, the 2^nd Asia-Pacific Mycological Conference will be held in Hong Kong. On this congress, a session on: Taxonomy and phytogeography of lichenized ascomycetes in the tropics will be organized by André Aptroot. Please contact him (e-mail: aptroot@cbs.knaw.nl) for more information. Incidentally, an annotated checklist of Hong Kong lichens (with numerous new records and 4 species new to science) was just published by him and M. Seaward in Tropical Bryology 17: 57-101.

An international workshop to be held at Orielton Field Centre, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, West Wales between 16-22^nd August 2000. This workshop follows the BLS Habitats Management Workshop in Bangor 1997, and the LiCons symposium in Switzerland this year, where international concerns over issues for lichen conservation were discussed. The workshop aims at discussing and evaluating lichen monitoring strategies, and producing a Handbook of Lichen Monitoring methods that can be used by field workers, conservation bodies, and environmental consultants. - Background: Lichens have been widely used as indicators of environmental changes from air pollution to ecological continuity of old growth forests and more recently to climate change. The introduction of monitoring techniques is rapidly taking place for a wide range of objectives from assessing growth or loss of a population for Species Action Plans to the monitoring of lichen communities in extensive forests in the Pacific Northwest (U.S.A.) where forest management has been altered to accommodate epiphytic lichens. Information gathered from monitoring projects has contributed to our understanding of population dynamics and changes in lichen communities, and to assessing environmental, conservation and management issues, on both a local and a wider scale. Maritime habitats are an important part of our natural heritage and support a large proportion of the lichen flora on Atlantic shores. The oil spill from the Sea Empress in 1996 damaged a large area of littoral shores in Pembrokeshire, yet few monitoring sites were in place, and a wider monitoring initiative needs to be addressed. In other parts of the world where lichen-rich habitats are threatened there is an urgent need for collecting and interpreting data at a very basic level. This workshop will allow an exchange of methodology and ideas to support and establish appropriate monitoring. Topics: It is hoped that participants will contribute projects on all aspects and levels of lichen monitoring, surveillance and data interpretation for inclusion in the handbook, either as posters or as papers. Topics that will have special relevance include; analysis of growth and loss in individuals and in populations, community dynamics; relationship between bryophytes and lichens, Biodiversity Action Plans for Species (BAPS) and for habitats (HAPS). Use of indicator species for evaluating biodiversity and ecological continuity in a range of habitats including maritime. Monitoring for air pollution and environmental change. Practical problems in long-term monitoring. The programme will be based on workshops with presentations that are relevant to each topic; there will be site visits and on-site discussions in a range of habitats where monitoring is going on. Location: The workshop will be held in Pembrokeshire, where lichen communities are both diverse and well known, and where monitoring projects have been established in a range of habitats. Orielton was the home of the Oil Pollution Research Unit from 1963-1987, and still continues research on maritime shores. Field trips will include visits to Stackpole NNR and Skomer Island, Tycanol NNR, and shorter visits to Lawrenny and Angle Bay (oil pollution site), will be made during the week. The workshop will run from Wednesday evening 16^th august (arrive for evening meal) until Tuesday 22^nd august (accommodation includes leaving early on 23^rd). The cost for the week including transport will be c. £270 including transport to sites (excluding £12 fee for Skomer Island). Organising Committee: Pat Wolseley (Scientific Associate NHM), Brian Coppins (RBGE), Christoph Scheidegger (WSL Switzerland) with assistance from Peter James, Frank Dobson and Tony Fletcher. For further details and registration forms contact: P. Wolseley, Botany Department, The Natural History Museum. Cromwell Rd. London SW7 5BD. E-mail: patw@nhm.ac.uk, fax: 0207 942-5529, phone: 0207 942-5617. Please return registration forms before December 30^th 1999.

During a geobotanical expedition to the Mangyshlak region in Kasachstan in spring 1999 Ortrun Lepping and Fred Daniels were able to collect a lot of lichens from gypsum substrates including many "manna lichens". During a 3-weeks expedition of the International Circumpolar Vegetation Mapping project (CAVM) Fred Daniels collected lichens in all tundra subzones of Northern Canada. Visited areas include Axel Hedberg Island, Eureka (Ellesmere Island), Cornwallis Island, several localities on Victoria Island and Daring Lake on the Canadian mainland. Helga Bültmann finished her Ph.D. thesis on Vergleichende Untersuchungen zu Textur und Struktur azidophytischer Erdflechtenvegetation unter Berücksichtigung von Standort und Syntaxonomie (Comparative studies on texture and structure of acidophilous terricolous lichen vegetation with reference to environmental conditions and syntaxonomy). This study deals with the lichen vegetation of SE Greenland, Finland, Denmark and Germany. The main results will be published in several papers. Helga Bültmann, Fred Daniels, Ortrun Lepping and Christoph Lünterbusch continued their studies on Greenland lichens in relation to the vegetation. Lichen research of over 20 years old permanent plots in inland dune areas of The Netherlands still continues. In many sites lichens are very well developed again, especially reindeer lichens (Cladonia portentosa). Volker Krain finished fieldwork for his Ph.D study on saxicolous lichens in Westfalen. Finally, the epiphytic lichen flora of the town of Münster was remapped again. Compared with the situation in the eighties, the number of species increased slightly, lichen cover increased strongly, while nitrophytic species became more abundant.

Allison Knight has recently joined Jennifer Bannister in the University of Otago Herbarium (OTA) as a part-time volunteer helping to curate and database the lichen collections. Allison is also preparing lichen lists for various regions of South Island, and is collecting lichens for OTA. Jennifer is continuing to examine the variation in species of Ramalina in New Zealand and is extending their known distributions. David Galloway (Landcare Research, NZ Ltd) is 2/3 of the way through a Supplement to Flora of New Zealand Lichens, which will incorporate the many changes, new discoveries, etc., in the NZ lichen mycobiota since publication of the Flora in 1985. An updated and expanded Checklist of NZ Lichen-forming, lichenicolous and allied fungi is being prepared for presentation at Species 2000, in Wellington in February 2000. He is undertaking a revision of Placopsis in NZ and the temperate Southern Hemisphere; completing a monograph on Pseudocyphellaria in Australia with Jack Elix and Gintaras Kantvilas; and participating in a Mardsen Fund Project in the Department of Biochemistry, Otago University investigating nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis in forest and grassland species of Pseudocyphellaria. Michael Thomas (Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Otago), late of Arizona State University, has recently accepted a post-doctoral position under the Marsden Fund, investigating aspects of nitrogen-fixation and cycling in New Zealand ecosystems with a focus on Pseudocyphellaria. He is also doing some preliminary investigations on the relationship of genetic variation to nitrogen-fixation status. Tina Summerfield (Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Otago) is a doctoral candidate also working with the Marsden Project. She is examining cyanobionts of Pseudocyphellaria collected from various ecological niches. The experiments currently being undertaken focus on the photosynthetic performance of the cyanobionts under a variety of light levels and will also include UV-B effects. Preliminary studies have focused on: (1) the lipid composition of thylakoid membranes, and (2) the effect of light quality and intensity on gene expression.

Scott LaGreca and Urs Groner are interested in obtaining specimens of the following species from different regions of Europe and Macaronesia: Ramalina elegans, R. subgeniculata, R. panizzei. Their study will include chemical and molecular methods. Any contribution is very welcome; near-fresh specimens would be great! (e.g. of the last two years or so). Specimens should be sent to: Urs Groner, Eidgenossische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft (WSL), Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland, e-mail: groner@wsl.ch.

As the result of my recent interests in the paleobotanical history of the genus Erioderma, it has become clear that E. pedicellatum and several closely related species in South America have been formed through hybridization between E. wrightii and species containing argopsin. All of these hybrids have in common that they contain the mixed depsidone eriodermin, whose ring A is of the b-orcinol type, whereas their b-rings are of the orcinol type. Since this difference cannot be explained through metabolic conversion of the b-orcinol ring into an orcinol ring, the most logical explanation for the presence of this "mixed" depsidone is that it is the product of hybridization between E. wrightii, which contains the pure orcinol depsidone conwrightiin, and species which are producing the pure beta-orcinol depsidone argopsin. On the basis of this information, a collaborative effort has been envisaged between P. DePriest (Smithsonian Institution), P.M. Jørgensen (Univ. of Bergen), and myself, to examine the molecular biology of Erioderma pedicellatum and similar hybrids, as well as that of their putative parents. This work seems particularly important in view of the fact that Erioderma is one of the most primitive genera of cyanophilic lichens, and that rapid evolution of the secondary metabolism has been explored.

Wolfgang Maass

The headquarters of the IAPT recently moved from Berlin to Vienna, including the editorial office of Taxon and Regnum Vegetabile. The new President of the IAPT is Sir Ghillean T. Prance (Kew, UK) and the Secretary-Treasurer Prof. Tod Stuessy (Vienna, Austria). The only cryptogamist in the new IAPT Council is Teuvo Ahti. See Taxon 48: 605-607. 1998.

Teuvo Ahti, Helsinki

Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia will go to press (Cambridge University Press) early in 2000. It has been prepared over the past 15 years by Dag Olav Øvstedal (Bergen, Norway) and Ronald Lewis-Smith (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, U.K.), and funded by the B.A.S. This will be the first comprehensively researched and revised text on the lichen-forming fungi of the Antarctic biome. The large sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia is included because of its close biogeographic affinity to the maritime Antarctic region, opposite southern South America. A substantial amount of the material examined is held in the very large Antarctic herbarium of the B.A.S. (AAS), all specimen details of which are held in the Antarctic Plant Database (soon to be accessible through the B.A.S. webpage at: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk). However, comparative material, including available types, has been obtained from many other herbaria, and many specialists around the world have contributed their expertise. This book will complement the Illustrated Bryoflora of Antarctica (R. Ochyra, H. Bednarek-Ochyra, J. Vana and R.I. Lewis-Smith), preparation of which is nearing completion. It should be ready for submission to C.U.P. by July 2000.

R.I. Lewis-Smith, Cambridge

Goward T., 1999 - The lichens of British Columbia, illustrated keys. Part 2, Fruticose Species. Special report series no. 9. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Victoria, BC. 319 pp. ISBN 0-7726-3961-2 (soft cover). Price: Canadian$ 55.00. Available from: Crown Publications Inc., 521 Fort Street, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 1E7, phone: (250) 386-4636, fax: (250) 386-0221, e-mail: http://www.crownpub.bc.ca/ - This book covers 309 species of fruticose lichens that occur or are expected to occur in British Columbia. It starts with a short, clear introduction to lichen morphology. In the main part, T. Goward provides keys for identification of genera and species. Range and habitat, chemical reactions, and chemical constituents are listed for all the species. In numerous notes that accompany descriptions, the Author adds any information useful for the species identification or for understanding their distributions. He did all of the drawings that form the integral part of introductory chapters and keys. You will see that it is a great advantage when the author of a taxonomic treatment can illustrate his own work. I was impressed by the keys to Cladonia (72 species; mind you, that's only about a one half of our sedges!) and I liked all the information on the "Calicioid" lichens - those small pins that you can find on tree bark in our ancient forests. BEN readers won't be at all surprised that I don't like Trevor's effort to provide common names for all lichens "as vehicles of communication for those unwilling to use scientific names." Some of those common names sound like they were coined while under the influence of Cladonia pleurota - "Mind-altering pixie-cup". The book is very well produced and both T. Goward and the British Columbia Ministry of Forests should be congratulated for this excellent contribution. Many thanks, Trevor!
P.S. I should mention that this volume is a sequel to Goward, T., McCune B. & D. Meidinger, 1994. The lichens of British Columbia, Illustrated Keys. Part 1, Foliose and Squamulose Species. Special report series no. 8, B.C. Ministry of Forests, Victoria, B.C. 181 p. ISBN 0-7726-2194-2 [soft cover] Price: Canadian$ 31.00

Adolf Ceska, Vancouver

PICCINI C. and S. SALVATI (eds.), 1999 - Biomonitoraggio della Qualità dell' Aria sul Territorio Nazionale. - ANPA Serie Atti 2, 337 pp. ISBN 88-448-0021-7. Price: free. Available from: ANPA (Attn.: C. Piccini), Dip. Ambiente, Via Brancati 48, 00144 Roma (Italy). - This volume, published by the Italian National Agency for the Environment (ANPA) contains the State of the Art of Italian research on the biomonitoring of air quality (higher plants, bryophytes, lichens etc.), and national guidelines for several techniques. Lichens, represented with at least four articles, play an important role. This volume, albeit in Italian (with English abstracts), might be of interest for a wider audience, as it contains the most comprehensive bibliography on biomonitoring with lichens in Italy, totalling more than 400 articles, most of which were published in the last 10 years.

KANTVILAS G. and S. J. JARMAN, 1999 - Lichens of Rainforest in Tasmania and south-eastern Australia, with photographs by B.A.Fuhrer. - Australian Biological Resources Study, Flora of Australia Supplementary Series, Volume 9, Soft cover; 212 pages, c. 240 colour photographs. Price: Australian $39.95, plus A$4.00 postage (surface mail). - More than 200 macrolichens have been recorded in Tasmania's rainforest, and 127 are illustrated in this volume. Many also occur in the cool temperate rainforests of south-eastern Australia or New Zealand. The book, beautifully illustrated in colour, provides introductory chapters on the nature of lichens, the composition of the lichen flora in Tasmania, and the distribution and ecology of lichens in rainforest. It includes notes on the genera and species, an identification key and a glossary of technical terms. To receive a brochure-order form by mail or fax, contact: Pat McCarthy, ABRS, GPO Box 787, Canberra A.C.T. 2601, Australia, e-mail: patrick.mccarthy@ea.gov.au.

The Editor