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vascular plants orchids fungi bryophytes ____________________________________________________________________ LICHENS The extensive coastal, montane and woodland habitats on Thásos presumably support a rich and interesting lichen flora, but it is difficult to find any information on this group of plants for Thásos. For instance, there are no records for Thásos in Rechinger, K.H. (1943) Flora Aegea. Flora der Inseln und Halbinseln des Ägäischen Meeres. Akad. Wiss. Wein, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl., Denkschr., 105 (1). The only scientific paper to deal substantially with lichens on Thásos is a brief study by Popnikolov (1956), which lists 27 taxa recorded from the vicinity of Thassos Town in the 1940s and I am most grateful to Andrey Kovatchev for providing a copy of this reference. Other than this, Geisller (1977) reports six species from the island, including several from Ipsarion.
Until recently this amounted to the sum of our knowledge on the lichen flora of Thásos, but further records have come to light in the course of B.F.M. Abbott's dedicated research whilst compiling a checklist of the lichens of Greece (Abbot 2009). A significant addition comes from the nineteen species recorded by I. Piút during a visit to the island in August 2007 and two additions to the island checklist come from specimens in the herbarium of M.R.D. Seaward. In total, Abbott (2009) lists 47 taxa from Thásos, though he notes that Popnikolov's record of Flavocetraria nivalis is almost certainly erroneous as this is an arctic-alpine species not recorded elsewhere in Greece. Along with the record of Lobaria pulmonaria mentioned above, this means that 47 taxa have been reliably recorded from the island. Considering the degree of attention paid to lichens in Greece generally, including the islands, this is a reasonable tally. However, over 1300 Greek taxa are documented by Abbott and some of the larger islands have over 200 taxa recorded so there are likely to be many more species awaiting discovery on Thásos. I'm indebted to Bernard Abbott for his kindness in allowing me to consult his remarkable checklist. CHECKLIST
Aspicilia calcarea (L.) Mudd var. calcarea Walter (1976)
Saxicolous lichens - Ipsarion summit (Oct 2001) REFERENCES Abbott, B. F. M. 2009. Checklist of the lichens and lichenicolous fungi of Greece. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 103:1-368 Geissler, P. 1977. Zur Moos- und Flechtenflora Nordgriechenlands. Bauhinia 6 (1):189-213 Popnikolov, A. 1956. Flechten von Ost - (Griechisch) Mazedonien. Bull. de L'Institut Botanique, Academie Bulgare des Sciences, 4: 353-356. [in Bulgarian]
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The herbarium of the Dept. of Botany at the University of Essen, Germany,
contains an example of
the beard lichen Evernia prunastri (L.) Ach. collected from the slopes of
Profitis Ilias in 1994. I have collected a specimen of the lungwort Lobaria pulmonaria
(L.) Hoffm. [det. R.G. Woods] from ancient plane trees in the hills
above Thassos Town, alongside a tributary of the main river which runs past Ag.
Marina. Lungworts are species of clean, moist air and may be indicative of the
presence of other important epiphytic lichen species in this beautiful fragment of
deciduous woodland.