Bulletin of the California Lichen Society Volume 1 8 No. 2 Winter 201 2 The California Lichen Society seeks to promote the appreciation, conservation, and study of lichens. The interests of the Society include the entire western part of the continent, although the focus is on California. Dues categories are (in $US per year): Student and fixed income ­ $10, Regular ­ $20 ($25 for foreign members, or $20 foreign student memberships), Family ­ $25, Sponsor and Libraries ­ $35, Donor ­ $50, Benefactor ­ $100, and Life Members ­ $500 (one time) payable to the California Lichen Society, PO Box 472, Fairfax, California 94978. Members receive the Bulletin and notices of meetings, field trips, lectures and workshops. Board Members of the California Lichen Society: President: Bill Hill, [email protected] Vice President: Shelly Benson, [email protected] Secretary: Erin P. Martin, [email protected] Treasurer: Kathy Faircloth, [email protected] Member At Large: Tom Carlberg [email protected] Editor: John Villella, [email protected] Committees of the California Lichen Society: Database: Bill Hill, chairperson Conservation: Eric Peterson, chairperson Education: Erin P. Martin, chairperson Poster/Mini Guides: Susan Crocker, chairperson Events/Field trips/Workshops: vacant, chairperson Outreach: vacant, chairperson The Bulletin of the California Lichen Society (ISSN 1093­9148) is edited by John Villella ([email protected]). The Bulletin has a review committee including Larry St. Clair, Shirley Tucker, William Sanders, and Richard Moe, and is produced by Erin P. Martin. The Bulletin welcomes manuscripts on technical topics in lichenology relating to western North America and on conservation of the lichens, as well as news of lichenologists and their activities. The best way to submit manuscripts is by e­mail attachments in the format of a major word processor (DOC or RTF preferred). Do include italics for scientific names. Please submit figures in electronic formats with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch (600 minimum for line drawings). Email submissions are limited to 10MB per email, but large files may be split across several emails or other arrangements can be made. Contact the Production Editor: Erin P. Martin, at [email protected], for details of submitting illustrations or other large files. A review process is followed. Nomenclature follows Esslingers cumulative checklist online at http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/essinge/chchlist/chcklist7.htm. The editors may substitute abbreviations of authors names, as appropriate from R.K. Brummitt and C.E. Powell, Authors of Plant Names, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1992. Style follows this issue. Electronic reprints in PDF format will be emailed to the lead author at no cost. The deadline for submitting material for the Summer 2012 CALS Bulletin is 30 April 2012. The California Lichen Society is online at: http://californialichens.org/ and has email discussions through http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CaliforniaLichens/. Volume 18 (2) of the Bulletin was issued on 15 February 2012. Front Cover: Lepraria pacifica, from Tolumne Grove in Yosemite. See article by J. Lendemer page 1. Image by James Lendemer. Bulletin of the California Lichen Society VOLUME 1 8 NO. 2 Winter 201 2 Why Lepraria? Why Lichens? Eight years of studying Lepraria in California. James C. Lendemer Institute of Systematic Botany The New York Botanical Garden Bronx, NY 10458­5126, U.S.A. [email protected] My name is James Lendemer and I'm a of Arizona because I didn't drive or own a student working on my PhD at the City car. So you can imagine how excited I was University of New York and The New when Kerry invited me out to California to York Botanical Garden in New York City. explore the mountain ranges of southern In 2008 I received a student grant from California with him for a week. Without CALS to support my dissertation studies any coaxing I bought a bus ticket and rode on the sterile lichen genus Lepraria. the Greyhound from Phoenix to Riverside. Although I used the funds in the first year As the desert of Arizona and eastern of my work, I waited to submit this article California gave way to date palms, hills to the Bulletin because the funding was covered with grasses, and mountain ranges used primarily to generate data that is coated with scrub I had no clue what lay beginning to be published now that I have ahead. And I certainly didn't know that the nearly finished my dissertation. trip would set in motion a study of My introduction to California almost a Lepraria that would consume much of the decade ago was a fitting one. After years next decade of my life. of e­mails and phone calls to my friend Kerry met me at the bus station in Kerry Knudsen, we were finally going to Riverside, and after brief introductions we meet in Riverside. At that time I was drove off towards the Santa Ana working for Tom Nash at Arizona State Mountains. Climbing the crest of a ridge University. Tom had hired me to manage on a winding road I received the first of the lichen herbarium after Bruce Ryan's many lessons on Californian geology. I passing, and I moved to Tempe in the also saw many lichens for the first time height of summer. (Everyone reading this outside of the color photos in Ernie should beware of invitations to Phoenix in Brodo's Lichens of North America. the dead of winter, that's how they get you Although Xanthoria elegans and Lecanora hooked!) Despite my close proximity to muralis may not be the rarest gems of the the Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran California lichen biota, they were Desert Region, both the actual living flora considerably more festive than the lichens and the printed books, I didn't have much I was used to back east in Pennsylvania. opportunity to explore the natural habitats We even found the shiny brown crustose 1 BULLETIN OF THE CALIFORNIA LICHEN SOCIETY 18(2), 2012 Lendemer ­ Lepraria lichen Miriquidica scotopholis, though at many more sites, and at each one I found the time we didn't know what it was myself focusing on the sterile lichens. For because the concept of it was confused someone in their early twenties it seemed (Knudsen & Owe­Larsson 2005, remarkable that any organism would give Lendemer & Knudsen 2008). Eventually up sex and reduce itself to tiny cotton we made our way to a series of crumbling balls that resemble dust and divide rock walls along an old dirt road. There, endlessly into the future. Needless to say, covering the decomposing granite, was a when I returned to Tempe I had a huge strange green crustose lichen. It was box of what Lichens of North America sterile, and most people at that time refers to as the dust lichens. After learning probably wouldn't have collected it. But the basics of Thin Layer Chromatography having a natural aversion to following from Tom I spent several months contemporary wisdom we collected ample attempting to identify what I collected. material. We could not have known it When I returned east later that year to would take another three years before continue my undergraduate studies in Kerry could collaborate with Jack Elix in Philadelphia I brought my box of Australia to finally ascertain that this Lepraria with me.....many remained species produced argopsin and was new to unidentified. science. They formally described it as Each subsequent year that followed, Lepraria santamonicae, a California Kerry and I would make arrangements to endemic (Knudsen & Elix 2007). spend a week or so exploring the lichens After stopping at several more sites we of California, and on each trip I would drove through the mountains to Kerry's return with another box of Lepraria and a house. There we talked over gin and mind full of field observations. We tonics well into the evening. The next day we made our way to the heights of the San Jacinto Mountains where we visited an unusual ravine along the North Fork of the San Jacinto River. This ravine was narrow and deep, cool and shaded, and perhaps most importantly it was moist. Every surface was carpeted with Lepraria. I had seen some of these lichens back east, however the ones at North Fork were entirely different. In my zeal I made many collections, especially of a species with a thick felty thallus. Only later would I learn that this had been my first encounter with Lepraria rigidula, a rare species in Figure 1. Terraces formed by Lepraria central and southern California that is caesioalba in Tuolumne Meadow in more common further north. Yosemite, CA. Photo by James Lendemer. During the rest of the week we visited 2 BULLETIN OF THE CALIFORNIA LICHEN SOCIETY 18(2), 2012 Lendemer ­ Lepraria continued to search the mountain ranges of York City. I moved into an apartment in southern California, collecting in the Santa The Bronx and an office in the top floor of Anas, San Bernardinos, Santa Monicas, the museum building at the Botanical and San Jacintos where we found isolated Garden. From my desk I could see the lush remnants of a more northern lichen biota. greenery of the grounds through my Encountering an entire wall of the window and, more importantly, the boxes northern species Lepraria eburnea on brimming with Lepraria stacked all Palomar Mountain is particularly around me. Earlier that year it had become memorable. Soon Kerry began working in clear to me that contrary to popular belief, coastal habitats, such as those at Torrey there were discrete micro­morphological Pines State Park and Point Loma in San differences between Lepraria species Diego. There for the first time I was able (Lendemer & Harris 2007).