Diversity and distribution of macro lichens from Kalpetta Municipality of Wayanad District, Kerala, India

: Macro lichens of Kalpetta Municipality of Wayanad District of Kerala state were studied. The study revealed about 21 macro lichen species. All the species identified are either foliose or fruticose forms belonging to families Coccocarpiaceae, Caliciaceae, Physciaceae, Parmeliaceae, Collemataceae, Lobariaceae, and Ramalinaceae indicating the dominance of these groups in the study area.


Later reports include Nayaka & Upreti
Wayanad is a botanically rich area in Kerala, with an altitude ranging from 700 to 2,100 m. About 886 km 2 of the district is under forest. Kumar & Sequiera (2003) studied lichens from Chembra and Thirunelly hills of Wayanad District, but many gaps remain regarding this region. This study presents the first description of the diversity and distribution of macro lichens of Kalpetta municipality area of Wayanad district, which includes both natural forests and cultivated land.

Study area
Wayanad is situated at 11.685 0 N, 76.132 0 E ( Figure  1). The Wayanad plateau is one of the hotspot regions in the Western Ghats, and is part of the Nilgiri

Lichen samples
A total of 112 lichen specimens were collected from 28 wards of Kalpetta Municipality during several field visits (Table 1). Samples were collected in brown acidfree bags of appropriate sizes. Corticolous and saxicolous lichens were collected along with the substratum using sharp chisels. Much care was taken to collect these specimens without any damage to the thallus margins. Fruticose lichens were collected with their holdfasts intact. All specimens were serially numbered in the field according to the date of collection. Characters of lichens which might be lost during drying and preservationsuch as the colour of the thallus, reproductive structures, orientation of the specimen, details of associated plants, collection date, locality, and nature of substratumwere noted.
The specimens were dried, and the morphological details were examined under stereo zoom Leica S8 microscope, while anatomical details were examined with a Leica DM 1000 compound microscope with camera and image analysis software. Chemistry was studied by spot tests using 10% aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide, freshly prepared aqueous solution of calcium hypochlorite, 1-5% solution of para phenylenediamine and iodine solution. Thin layer chromatography was performed in solvent system C following Orange et al. (2001). Recent literature, keys and descriptions (Awasthi 1991(Awasthi , 2007Divakar & Upreti 2005;Wijayawardene et al. 2020) were followed for identification. Nomenclature was confirmed with the database Index Fungorum (http://www.IndexFungorum. org). Lichens were grouped on the basis of collected localities, type of growth forms, type of fungal partner etc. The identified specimens were deposited at the Lichen Herbarium, Department of Botany, Maharaja's College (Autonomous), Ernakulam, Kerala.

Results and Discussion
Analysis of the collected specimens revealed 21 species belonging to seven families from the study area (Table 2). Of the identified samples, 20 were foliose and the remaining one, Ramalina sp. was fruticose. The family Physciaceae dominated with 10 species under three genera, followed by Parmeliaceae (5 species under 3 genera), Collemataceae (2 species under 1 genus), Coccocarpiaceae, Caliciaceae, Lobariaceae, and Ramalinaceae with one species and one genus. The genus Heterodermia dominated with seven species  Corticolous species were dominated in both the natural as well as the cultivated ecosystems. Species such as Leptogium denticulatum, Myelochroa perisidians, and Phaeophyscia ciliata were found to be saxicolous in nature, while all others were corticolous inhabiting either on the trunks or branches of arboreal elements in the study area. Trunks of trees and small or medium sized rocks inside the ecosystems are the main microhabitats for most of the macrolichens in the study area. Environmental factors influence the lichen community to a great extent and these organisms are very much sensitive to environmental changes and microhabitat has significant influence on lichen distribution (Fryday 2000 Environmental factors such as, light, humidiy, rainfall, and stable microclimatic factors govern the distribution of lichen species in such habitats. The result shows strong competitive capability of some lichens and its wide ecological amplitude to survive on the road side trees which has high exposure to vehicular pollution. As per Larsen et al. (2007), transport-related pollution and bark acidity can influence lichen distribution in some areas.
Among cultivated ecosystems, arecanut and coconut plantations had a greater number of lichens than tea and coffee plantations. Macrolichens such as Dirinaria consimilis, Hypotrachyna infirma, Parmotrema cristiferum, P. praesorediosum, P. tinctorum, and Physcia tribacoides were found distributed in the arecanut plantations. Coconut plantations support species like Dirinaria consimilis, Parmotrema tinctorum, P. praesorediosum, Physcia dilatate, and P. tribacoides. However, tea plantations in the study area inhabit only three species, Dirinaria consimilis, Physcia dilatata, and P. tribacoides; and coffee plantations supports only Physcia dilatata and P. tribacoides. Since, trees are considered as the major supporting system for the successful growth of lichens in tropical vegetations, the bark character, aspects and height of the tree are of greater importance in the distribution of lichens (John 1992). Nayaka et al. (2006) enumerated the occurrence of 23 lichen species on coconut and arecanut orchard of Goa in which crustose lichens were dominated with 17 species, while foliose and fruticose lichens exhibit scarce growth.
With regard to the altitudinal variation, distribution and occurrence of lichens were highest from 840-860 m. The variation of species occurrence along the different

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altitudinal gradients shows that the distribution and occurrence of lichens vary with altitude. Negi & Upreti (2000) observed that species richness of lichens was low at lower altitude gradually rises to a peak at middle altitudes and then fall significantly at higher altitudes while working along the altitudinal gradients in the rock microhabitat of Hemis National Park, in Ladakh. Mishra & Upreti (2015) also observed that diversity of lichens changed with altitude in Govind Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand. The most probable reason for poor diversity in different localities situated in lower altitudes may be due to environmental conditions, heavy anthropogenic pressure as the inhabitants of the villages largely depend for their fuel and fodder needs on the nearby forest area which resulted into destruction of forests.