editorial

The type of "Dendriscocaulon" is now widely accepted as being the cyanobacterial state of the lichen Lobaria amplissima (Scop.) Forss. This has exposed taxonomic problems in the treatment of Southern Hemisphere free-living cyanobacterial states of fungi in the Lobariaceae currently assigned to "Dendriscocaulon" (see Armaleo & Clerc 1991; Jørgensen 1991, 1996b, 1997b, 1998a; Laundon 1995a, 1996; Heiðmarsson et al. 1997; Galloway 2001e; Thomas et al. 2002; Goffinet et al. 2003), where green-algal and cyanobacterial symbioses of the same fungus may show dramatically different morphologies, the green-algal state often being a species of Sticta. Since free-living cyanobacterial states appear to be physiological adaptations of certain lichen-forming fungi (Lobaria, Nephroma, Peltigera, Pseudocyphellaria, Sticta) to low-light, high-humidity habitats, it is not permitted (under the rules of the ICBN) to give separate names to the cyanobacterial states when they are known to form photosymbiodemes with a named green-algal lichen.

Galloway, D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand; Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. Revised second edition. Vol. 1. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln.