Tasmanian lichens - Part 1

There is no class of plants which ordinary people know or notice so little as lichens. Yet this does not arise from their rarity or the sparseness of their distribution, for they grow almost everywhere on the globe, especially in the temperate and polar zones ; and some species are very numerous. For example, the " reindeer moss," as it is called, while it is found in all cool climates, grows in the Arctic regions so profusely that the individual specimens of it are said to greatly outnumber those of any other species of plant throughout the world. The range of altitude and position also is very extensive. Some species are found on Alpine heights where no other vegetation exists ; and some grow on the seaside, between high and low water. Some thrive on hard rocks exposed to the noonday sun ; and some delight in the shade of caves and forests. The substrata on which they grow are various. Sandy earth, clay and loam, sandstone, granitic, basaltic, and calcareous rocks, dead wood, the bark and leaves of trees, messes, etc., even dried bones, leather, iron, and glass afford them foothold. But they seem to absorb very little nutriment from any of these substrata ; and most of them indeed live wholly on air and moisture. This work containes a list of 151 species, based on Rev. Wilsons own collections and those of earlier collectors, and included a brief description of each species. SEE ALSO: Ratkowsky - Macrolichens of Mount Wellington, Tasmania - UTAS ePrints http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1380