Cyclohymenia epilithica is a newly described genus and species from Oregon and Washington, U.S.A. It occurs on noncalcareous rock in the oceanic forests west of the crest of the Cascade Range. Unlike most other North American species in the Lecideaceae, it is restricted to shady habitats in cool, wet, temperate climates. It is distinguished from other members of the family by its thick, pale gray green, epilithic thallus; immersed apothecia that superficially appear like perithecia or pycnidia; and ascocarps that usually contain a central sterile column surrounded by a ring-shaped hymenium. The structure and position of the ascocarp appear to be unique among Lecideaceae and related families. The species is also unusual in producing short-lived asci; most collections have barren apothecia. Lecidea atrobrunnea subsp. deplanaica is raised to the species level. The taxon deserves specific rank, not just from its distinctive chemistry, but also from morphology, distribution, and ecology that differ from L. atrobrunnea s.str. The newly described Lecidea uniformis from Oregon and Washington, mainly west of the Cascade crest, is similar in many ways to L. fuscoatra, but the areoles are uniformly brown and do not have a differentiated gray, blackish, or whitish edge. DNA sequence data support the taxa Cyclohymenia epilithica and L. uniformis.

Acarospora nitrophila is lectotypified and a new description is supplied with photographs. It is currently considered a rare saxicolous species only positively known from Norway and Sweden. A key is supplied for some European species commonly confused with A. nitrophila.

Bryophytes have long been understood to be desiccation tolerant (capable of reviving from an air-dry state, DT). While mechanistic studies focusing on the expression of this complex trait are numerous over the last 50 years, a firm conceptual framework for the ecology of desiccation tolerance in bryophytes has lagged behind. As a result of this, mechanistic studies have gone ahead without an ecological foundation, and this path can be scientifically risky. The motivating elements for this article include (1) the low visibility and lack of implementation of a conceptual framework for studying the ecology of DT in bryophytes, (2) the lack of a protocol for the step-by-step handling of field-collected or laboratory cultured specimens for study of desiccation tolerance with particular attention to the deacclimation of plants, (3) a recognition that most studies of desiccation tolerance tend to conflate two of the most important factors of desiccation, rate of desiccation and water content, and (4) recognizing that the ecological factors of rehydration, aside from recovery, are nearly always ignored in experiments on desiccation tolerance in bryophytes. Therefore this review postulates a conceptual framework for the ecology of desiccation tolerance, presenting the principal factors of desiccation (rate of drying, water content at equilibration, duration dry, and rate of rehydration) and how they may interact, presenting the principal physiological phases of rehydration (recovery, hardening, dehardening), and highlighting the importance of specimen handling in preparation for an experiment on DT. Useful metrics for assessment are derived that include the minimum rate of drying tolerated at a given water content, the minimum or maximum water content tolerated, the maximum duration dry tolerated, and the minimum dehardening time exhibited.

Preliminary results are presented of a lichen expedition to the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, a 100 km² conservation unity of undisturbed primary rain forest near Manaus in the Amazonas state, Brazil. So far, 157 species were identified, 122 of which are first reports from the Amazonas state, nine of which are first reports for Brazil. Most species are also found in other Amazonian states like Rondônia and Amapá. In addition, the following new species are described: Astrothelium dimidioinspersum, A. megeustomurale (also from Rondônia and Tocantins states), A. rubrostiolatum, A. valsoides, Chiodecton lichexanthonicum, Enterographa lichexanthonica, Fellhanera baeomycoides and Viridothelium ustulatum, In addition, Astrothelium astrolucidum and A. introflavidum are described from adjacent states. A high percentage of the new species has lichexanthone or another xanthone as cortical substance.

A distinctive group of species historically classified within Pertusaria subgenus Pionospora have been treated at the genus level under the name Variolaria, and more recently Marfloraea. Recent work has shown that Lepra is the oldest available name for this group. A nomenclatural summary of the members of the group that occur in North America north of Mexico is presented, including formal new combinations for the epithets that have not already been transferred to Lepra (i.e., P. andersoniae, P. commutata, P. floridiana, P. hypothamnolica, P. multipunctoides, V. pustulata, P. subdactylina, P. trachythallina, P. ventosa and P. waghornei). A key to the species occurring in the region is also presented.

In increasingly fragmented landscapes tree plantations are thought to help maintain forest continuity among native patches. Epiphytic lichens are one of the most sensitive groups to change in forest conditions, but the effects of this management practice are still poorly studied in temperate regions. In this study we compared epiphytic lichen diversity among small patches of old, native oaks (Quercus pyrenaica) and young, planted chestnuts (Castanea sativa) and Monterey pines (Pinus radiata) in a major forestry area in northwestern Spain. Our results showed that the richness of epiphytic lichens was higher in C. sativa than Q. pyrenaica, but that the latter had more lichen species typical of mature forests, including macrocyanolichens. Overall, C. sativa plantations had more species typical of well-lit, dry environments than Q. pyrenaica or P. radiata, which is likely caused by the natural architecture of each tree species, and to differences in forest age and management. At the tree level, Q. pyrenaica had the highest total richness including all species of conservation interest, which were exclusively found on this species. On a corollary, this study shows that Q. pyrenaica forests had the best preserved epiphytic lichen communities but with marked signs of forest fragmentation. In this fragmented landscape, young plantations of C. sativa and P. radiata seem to be of limited help for providing connectivity to epiphytic lichens among old native forest patches.

We describe the new genus, Sprucidea M.Cáceres, Aptroot & Lücking, from rain forest areas in South America and Southeast Asia. Phylogenetic analysis of the mtSSU and nuLSU markers place Sprucidea within Malmideaceae, sister to the genus Savoronala from Madagascar. Like Malmidea, Sprucidea is characterized by frequently red thalli containing norsolorinic acid, but differs in the bacillar instead of ellipsoid ascospores and in the stalked sporodochia as conidiomata; from Savoronala, Sprucidea is distinguished by the crustose thallus and short stalks of the sporodochia. The new genus thus far contains four species, two of them new to science, namely S. granulosa M.Cáceres, Aptroot & Lücking and S. rubropenicillata M.Cáceres, Aptroot & Lücking (type species), and two newly proposed combinations: S. gymnopiperis (Kalb) M.Cáceres, Aptroot & Lücking (basionym: Malmidea gymnopiperis Kalb) and S. penicillata (Aptroot, M.Cáceres, Lücking & Sparrius) M.Cáceres, Aptroot & Lücking (basionym: Bacidina penicillata Aptroot, M.Cáceres, Lücking & Sparrius). In addition, we propose the new combination Malmidea floridensis (Nyl.) M.Cáceres, Aptroot & Lücking (basionym: Lecidea floridensis Nyl.). We further include the pantropical genus Crustospathula (with currently five species) in Malmideaceae, differing from the other genera by its stalked soralia. With the recent addition of the genus Kalbionora, Malmideaceae thus contains five genera and two additional, orphaned lineages of species currently included in Lecidea s.l. A key to all genera and lineages is provided, as well as a key to all species of Sprucidea and Crustospathula.