Epiphytic lichens of apple orchards in Poland, Slovakia, and Italy

Abstract

Following the study of epiphytic lichens in 30 apple orchards from Poland, Slovakia and Italy the list of 74 taxa was prepared. The most common are the meso- to xerophytic and heliophilous species. The highest number of taxa was observed in Slovak orchards. Moreover, lichens shared with at least one other country were also noted mainly in Slovakia. Bark of apple trees seems to create favourable habitats for <em>Bacidia rubella</em>, which together with <em>Strangospora pinicola</em> were valuable founds in Polish orchards. In Slovak orchards, special attention should be paid to <em>Acrocordia gemmata, Melanelixia glabra</em> and <em>Usnea hirta</em>. Among interesting records in Italian orchards, <em>Phaeophyscia hispidula</em> and <em>Ph. kairamoi</em> can be mentioned.

Notes on the distribution of lichen biota of Podlasie. III. Nowosady village, Podlaskie province (north-eastern Poland)

“…Similar richness of epiphytes was observed in orchards in Slovakia (52 epiphytic lichen species) and Italy (45). In Polish orchards 32 epiphytes were noted [8]. Lower than in other studies epiphytic species richness found in Poland can be partially explained by diverse geographical location of the study sites.…”

“…The lichen species inhabiting smaller towns on Podlasie, like Drohiczyn [4], Mielnik [5], Boćki [6] and Białowieża [7] have been also described. The diversity of lichen biota of orchards in different towns has been studied in Slovakia, Italy and Poland [8], and in several Polish villages or rural areas, including Warmia Plain [9], Klewinowo [10] and Hermanówka [11]. The main goal of the present study was to evaluate the biodiversity of species in the Nowosady village and its surrounding areas, taking into account their natural environmental conditions.…”

Lichens in the agricultural land of Poland – diversity, threats, and protection: a literature review

“…This habitat group comprises heliophilous, nitrophilous, and coniophilous lichens mainly from the genera Physcia, Physconia, Ramalina, and Xanthoria (e.g., [3,6,8,[24][25][26][27]33,45,[57][58][59]). Bark of roadside and free-standing trees, as well as phorophytes growing in mid-field afforestations and mid-field peat bogs, gardens, orchards, and country parks seem to create favorable habitats for many epiphytes in rural areas (e.g., [1][2][3]5,7,12,20,27,[30][31][32][33][34][38][39][40][41][42][43][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]). The most frequently mentioned phorophytes in the literature are ash (Fraxinus sp.…”

“…The lichen biota of fruit trees of the Łącka Valley (S Poland) was already presented in the 1960s [36,37]. Afterwards, these data were supplemented by the information from the Bieszczady Mountains (S Poland [38,39,44]), Poręba Wielka in Gorce [64,65], the Wiśnickie Foothills (S Poland [46]), the commune of Sławno (central Poland [43]), the Nowotomyska Plain (W Poland [3,42]), and the Lower Vistula Valley (N Poland [40,41]). Numerous lichen species were found in orchards located in mountains and foothills [36,38,39], and they were sampled mainly on the bark of apple and pear trees [3,30,31,33,36,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]46,64].…”

“…More interesting data concerning lichens in such landscape were also collected at particular locations, e.g., villages and their surroundings in some regions of Poland, especially Podlasie, Roztocze, and Lubelszczyz na (e.g., ). Several articles are devoted to the occurrence of lichenized fungi on bark of fruit trees, especially in orchards [3,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. Lichenological studies in some protected areas, i.e., the Popradzki Landscape Park (S Poland [45]), the Wiśnicko-Lipnicki Landscape Park (S Poland [46]), the Chełmy Landscape Park (SW Poland [47]), the Pszczewski Landscape Park (W Poland [48]), the Wdzydzki Landscape Park (N Poland [49]), and the Suwalski Landscape Park (NE Poland [50]) also revealed taxa growing in rural areas.…”