Floristic assessment of lichens in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

The district revealed the occurrence of 51 species belonging to 22 genera under 14 families. The lichen biota included 15 new records to Andhra Pradesh and five species endemic to India. Among the different growth forms foliose and crustose exhibit the maximum diversity represented by 22 and 21 species followed by 7 squamulose and 2 leprose lichens. Based on the habitat preference corticolous lichens showed maximum diversity represented by 32 species followed by 21 saxicolous and two ramicolous species while four species found growing on more than one substrates. Among the different families, Caliciaceae is the largest family which is consisting of 13 species under the five genera. Among the seven localities surveyed in the district, Gundumala and Penukonda hills exhibited maximum diversity of lichens represented by 34 and 26 species. Pyxine petricola Nyl. is widely distributed and recorded from 6 localities of the district. This species can be used for pollution monitoring studies in the area in future. The present paper is providing status of lichen diversity and their distribution pattern in Anantapur district for the first time.