Portugal's first lichen checklist counts over 2,000 species

A team led by Palmira Carvalho of the National Museum of Natural History and Science has published the first comprehensive checklist of lichens in mainland Portugal, compiling records from 1788 to 2021. It documents 2,012 species across 483 genera, placing Portugal among Europe's richest countries for lichen diversity despite its small size compared with Germany or Italy. Knowledge is very unevenly distributed geographically, with the former Estremadura province far better studied than most regions. The authors say the list is a starting point, not a definitive picture, and call for systematic surveys in under-studied protected areas.