Sticta sylvatica

I recently had a paper published that talks about the status of the rare species Sticta sylvatica in my part of the world (Hodkinson et al. 2014). The article was actually featured on the cover! Here's the abstract:

"The presence of the foliose cyanolichen Sticta sylvatica in eastern North America has been called into question due to the absence of high-quality, verifiable material and the common misuse of its name. Recently, specimens collected in the Great Smoky Mountains have been verified as having the typical S. sylvatica morphology. Although molecular data remain inconclusive regarding the entity’s genetic distinctiveness from the phenotypically dissimilar S. limbata, we argue that the decline in the abundance of this morphological entity worldwide along with the need for further genetic study make continued conservation efforts imperative."

Sticta sylvatica in the field.

- Brendan

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Reference

Hodkinson, B. P., J. C. Lendemer, T. McDonald, and R. C. Harris. 2014. The status of Sticta sylvatica, an ‘exceedingly rare’ lichen species, in eastern North America. Evansia 31(1): 17-24.
Download publication (PDF file)
Download journal issue cover (PDF file)

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[This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under awards EF-1115086 and DEB-1145511.]