CENSUS CATALOGUE OF IRISH LICHENS

ABSTRACT: A new census catalogue of Irish lichens, based on vice-county distribution, enumerates 957 taxa (including 6 subspecies, 14 varieties and 2 forms); a significant proportion of the data assembled is derived from earlier records, the present status of which has not been determined. Numerous taxa listed as occurring in the 1953 census catalogue have been omitted since they have proved to be incorrect, dubious, or difficult to assign current nomenclature in the absence of herbarium material. An appendix lists unconfirmed records, including 39 taxa which would be additional to the Irish lichen flora. Irish lichen records, going back to Caleb Threlkeld (1676-1728), occur sporadically throughout eighteenth century botanical literature, but the true foundations of Irish lichenology were laid in the nineteenth century by Thomas Taylor (c. 1787-1848)