You will never again overlook the intricate structures of lichens on your garden’s rocks and trees once you have delved into Lichens: The Macrolichens of Ontario and the Great Lakes Region of the United States. Published by Firefly Books in 2023, this is the ultimate key to the complex world of our local lichens, which are complex living combinations of fungi and algae (or cyanobacteria).
The author is R. Troy McMullin, a lichenologist, head of botany at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and past president of the Field Botanists of Ontario.
The book has the heft of a serious scholarly work, but also has the durable and possibly water resistant cover intended for the reader whose boots already bear a significant amount of mud. A helpful “Photographic Summary of the Genera” leads off near the beginning, leaving aside the text for a multi-page photo array of the various forms and structures that lichens take in Ontario’s environment.
The bulk of the book is made up with individual descriptions of lichens, together with colourful maps and images to make identification easier. Wherever possible, photos from Ontario have been used. The common names of lichens are a treat to read: “Hooded Sunburst” (Xanthomendoza fallax), “Fishbone Beard” (Usnea dasapoga), “Jelly Strap Lichen” (Thyrea confusa). And, as a refreshing change in a technologically oriented world, several pages at the back are simply blank lined sheets for the reader to make notes of our own on our personal finds.
Highly recommended! (By Kat Kinch)