Teloschistaceae

Vondrák, Jan, Frolov, Ivan, Davydov, Evgeny A., Yakovchenko, Lidia, Malíček, Jiří, Svoboda, Stanislav & Kubásek, Jiří, 2019, The lichen family Teloschistaceae in the Altai-Sayan region (Central Asia), Phytotaxa 396 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Altai-Sayan Teloschistaceae diversity is linked to four Eurasian floral elements

Teloschistaceae in the Altai-Sayan region includes four main floral elements: (1) boreal-montane, (2) arctic-alpine, (3) xerophilous Eurasian, and (4) xerophilous Central Asian. A Mediterranean element is absent. The Far Eastern element is represented only by Gyalolechia ussuriensis ( Vondrák et al. 2016a) and Squamulea sp. (See the Taxonomy part for the latter species.)

(1) Boreal Teloschistaceae (e.g. Athallia cerinelloides , ‘ Caloplaca ’ ahtii and ‘ C. ’ borealis ) are typical of forested areas throughout the region. Most of these species tend to have continuous ranges towards the more northern taiga zone ( Urbanavichus 2010) and they are broadly distributed in northern Eurasia.

(2) Arctic-alpine species are typical of humid alpine sites. These species also have large geographic ranges including the circumpolar Arctic and temperate Eurasian and North American mountains. Throughout much of Eurasia, alpine sites, though widely separated, have similar alpine Teloschistaceae . In this respect Altai is quite similar to the Caucasus, 3000 km away, and to the even more distant European mountains . Presumably this similarity is a result of past glaciations, when arctic-alpine habitats must have covered larger areas than today .

(3) The xerophilous Eurasian group includes broadly distributed species of forest-steppe or steppe habitats (e.g. ‘ Caloplaca ’ conversa , ‘ C. ’ raesaenenii , ‘ C. ’ teicholyta and ‘ C. ’ xerica ). Many of them are regionally common and may occur in xerothermic spots, such as south-facing rocks, deep in the zone of humid forests (observations from numerous Eurasian regions).

(4) The Altai-Sayan region lies on the northern edge of the large part of Asia with a dry, continental climate, so it is not surprising that lichens restricted to dry continental Asia are well represented in Altai-Sayan. This element of the biota is difficult to assess, because the Teloschistaceae of Central Asia are not well known. Although many species have been described from central Asia, e.g. Brotherus 1897, Wainio 1904, Magnusson 1940, 1944, Poelt & Hinteregger 1993, Kondratyuk et al. 2002, Kondratyuk & Kudratov 2003, Søchting & Figueras 2007, most were described from one or just a few localities and their geographic range and ecology is unknown. However, some observations are possible. Typical Central Asian genera are Pachypeltis ( Arup et al. 2013) , also known from the Arctic and from the alpine zone of temperate regions, and the ‘ Caloplaca ’ anularis group, which is confined to dry alpine habitats in continental Asia except for the more widely distributed ‘ C.’ anularis itself. Central Asian species generally prefer arid alpine sites, and often occur at very high altitudes, but they are absent from the Arctic, except for the broadly distributed Xanthomendoza trachyphylla . Numerous Central Asian lichens are thick crusts with a distinct cortex and thick medulla ( Magnusson 1940, 1944); some species form algal and fungal stacks ( Vondrák & Kubásek 2013). This trait, which is not restricted to Teloschistaceae , has probably arisen in dry Central Asia because the distinctive climate of that region has been stable for a long period of time. It does not occur in species of other floral elements in the Altai-Sayan region.