American Journal of Botany 95(12): 1548–1556. 2008.

In this paper, we report that two recently discovered terri-colous basidiomycetes belong to a previously unknown lichen-ized lineage. In addition to clarifying relationships among lichenized basidiomycetes, our paper demonstrates the need for study of lichen biodiversity in tropical areas, which remain very much unexplored. Indeed, as shown by Nelsen et al. (2007) and L ü cking (2008) , uncertainty about the total number of lichen species on earth is due primarily to the lack of data in tropical taxa, especially the lack of modern taxonomic treatments. Fur-ther, savannas and open dry forests represent neglected biomes in tropical Africa, and their lichen fl ora is virtually unknown, especially saxicolous and terricolous species. Although repre-senting a large proportion of the protected areas in the conti-nent, they are currently under threat due to inappropriate management ( Burgess et al., 2004)