Table Of ContentA CompendiUlll of the
Macrolichens from India,
Nepal and Sri Lanka
DHARANI DHAR AWASTHI
A Compendium of the
Macrolichens from India,
Nepal and Sri Lanka
DHARANI DHAR AWASTHI
'I'
BISHEN SINGH MAHENDRA PAL SINGH
23-A, New Connaught Place
Dehra Dun - 248 001 (INDIA)
2007
A Compendium of the Macrolichens from India, Ntpal and Sri Lanka
o
2007, BishenSi.~d~i~A:$iM\
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ISRN . Q7R-R 1-211-0f>OO-Q
Cover Photo: Acroscyphus sphaerophoroides Lev.
Printed by Oajendra Singh Gahlot at Shiva Offset Press, and composed by Dootl PhotQtype
Printers. 14. Old Connaught Place, Dehra Dun. India/or Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Siqb,
Dellra Dun. India
TO
THE MEMORY
OF
MY WIFE
SHANTI
(23 Nov. 1927 - 8 March 2003)
Thou hath a right to work onlY,
Never to the fruits thereof.
Let not the fruits of action,
be thy motive,
Nor let tlfy attachment be to inaction.
Bhagwadgita.2: 47.
PREFACE
The Iichenological investigations that were initiated and continuously
pursued in India in the second half of the twentieth century have been
fairly extensive as far as the macrolichens are concerned. A key to the
macrolichens was formulated by Awasthi (l988b) in an expectation that
it may prove useful in the identification of lichens collected by new
workers in India. However, in several cases, it became apparent that the
keys did not fulfil the objective with certainty due to lack of referential
details and nomenclatural changes introduced in the mean time. Publication
of several new species also needed their inclusion. Instead of a revision, a
compendium has been prepared with concise notes on the genera and their
species, to overcome the general deficiency of Iichenologicalliterature in
Indian institutions, and thus ensure a workable guide of the macrolichens
known and still growing in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The treatment of
genus Cladonia and its species has been prepared under joint authorship
ofT. Ahti (Botanical Museum, Helsinki) as co-author. The taxa collected
and lor reported earlier but apparently not occurring now or not collected
in the recent past (after 1950) have been asterisked (**) marginally in the
text to indicate their absence or apparent extinction in the area.
The compendium is likely to be my last contribution on the lichens of
Indian subcontinent. I, therefore, take the opportunity to offer my homagel
gratitude to the persons who had provided me significant encouragement
and help in the early period of my lichenological career. My formemost
homage is to my teacher late Prof. S.N. Das Gupta for getting me appointed
as a Faculty Member of Lucknow University and encouraging me to pursue
the investigation of Indian Lichens. My earnest homage is to late Prof.
O.A. H0eg, Director (1950-53), Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany,
Lucknow, who was instrumental in introducing me to the Scandinavian
lichenologists, procured some lichenological literature and placed his
collection of lichens from India at my disposal. To late Dr. . A.H.
Magnusson, I offer my respectful homage for sending the repr:ints of his
publications and other literature and his identified lichen duplicates. He
acted as a guide, through correspondence, by comments and suggestions
on my identifications. He also persuaded ProLW.A. Weber during latter's
visit to Sweden in 1959, to arrange a place for my lichenological researches
at the Colorado University, USA, as was mentinoed to me by Weber
himself. To Prof. Weber, I extend my sincere gratitude for arranging a
part time assistantship in the department of Biology and Museum, Colorado
University, during 1960-63, and also getting me a grant from the National
Science Foundation. This period provided opportunities to come in contact
and discuss with several American and European lichenologists and
enabled me to gain full confidence for lichenological investigations and
acquire literature. While returning to India in 1963, I was able to visit
several European herbaria to peruse the Indian lichen specimens, thereby
enrich my knowledge about them. I was also able to acquire lichenological
literature during that period.
Throughout the active period of my research on lichens at Lucknow
University, I had been generously helped by severallichenologists enabling
me to successfully carry out studies on Indian lichens. Limitation of space
does not allow me to name them individually, but I offer my homage to
those who are no more, and extend my grateful thanks that are still with
us.
I am grateful to Drs. P.M. Jergensen and O. Vitikainen for information
in respect of several type specimens, and to Dr. A. W. Archer for sending,
as gift, the three volumes of Flora Australia (Lichens), which facilitated
my work. I thank Drs. O.K. Upreti and G.P. Sinha for the information and
help rendered. I am grateful to several bot~nical organizations /pubJishers
for permission to use information on many taxa under copyright.
My blessings go to my daughter Dr. (Mrs.) Garima Pant for devotedly
helping me to the extent of pointing out discrepancies in the manuscript. I
dedicate this work to the memory of my wife, Shanti, whose lifelong
sacrifices made my lichenological career a success.
11/34 Indira Nagar, D. D. Awasthi
Lucknow-2260 16
June, 2007
CONTENTS
Preface v
Dedication
Quotation
Introduction
Scope and treatment of the taxa included 4
Diversity of the taxa treated 8
Artificial Key to the Genera 10
Short comments on the genera and their species in 23
alphabetical order (Acarospora to Xanthoria)
References 539
Index to genera and species 557
INTRODUCTION
There has been a gradual build up of information about the lichens of
Indian subcontinent right from the time of Linnaeus, who reported two
taxa from India (Linnaeus 1753, 1767). Several taxa were added in the
publications by Acharius (1810, 1814), Belanger (1838), Montagne (1842),
Taylor (1847) and Babington (1852). A substantial increase in the
knowledge of lichen taxa of Indian subcontinent took place in the second
half of the 19th century based on collections by Hooker & Thomson, S.
Kurz, Thwaites, Gray, Almquist and Watt. They were worked out by
Nylander (1860, 1867, 1869, 1873, 1900), Leighton (1869), MUlier
Argoviensis (1874-1891, 1892, 1895), Stirtoil (1875-77, 1879, 1881a, b, 1882,
1883), and Hue (J 900b). There were few additions in the earlier part of
20th century, as evidenced by the publications by Jatta (1902, 1905, 1911),
Zahlbruckner (1911, 1932), A.L. Smith (J 931), Chopra (1934) and Motyka
(1936-38). The descriptions of the 80 taxa of lichens by Chopra (1934),
the first Indian to take up the study of lichens, were essentially based on
the determinations by A.L. Smith (1931) and Zahlbruckner (1932).
Lichenology had been a neglected field of study in the Indian Universities
for teaching and research, and thereby basic facilities of requisite literature
and authentic specimens for comparison, essential for taxonomic work,
were not available. It is likely that in spite of his work and publication,
Chopra could not independently pursue further studies on lichens on
account of those impediments.
During the course of a stipendiary training programme between
1946-48 in Systematic Botany and Taxonomy at the Indian (then Royal)
Botanic Garden and Herbarium, Kolka~a (CAL), I came across and
salvaged a collection of exsiccates on European lichens by Fries, Arnold
and others, almost dumped in the stores. This aroused my interest and I
committed myselffor the development oflichenology in India. At the same
time, Biswas (1947) listed 678 taxa of lichens occurring in the Indian
subcontinent. I then tried to compile the taxonomic details and the
descriptions of as many Indian taxa as possible by perusal of the scanty
literature available in the library ofthe herbarium (CAL) and also started
the collection of lichens whenever and wherever it was convenient. I
continued the collection of lichen specimens as an assistant at the National
Botanical Garden, Lucknow. Some of the collections were sent to Dr. V.
Rasanen, who published new taxa out of them (Rasanen 1950,1952).
Subsequently (since 1952) as a Faculty Member of the Department of
