New lichen records from the mountain forests of Southern Siberia

Based on the results of field works mainly in 2009–2017, new data on new and noteworthy lichen species from Southern Siberia are presented. The lichen specimens were collected predominantly by the first author in the mountain dark coniferous forests with Abies sibirica, Pinus sibirica, Populus suaveolens, Sorbus sibirica and Padus avium in Baikal State Nature Biosphere Reserve (Khamar-Daban Range, Republic of Buryatia) and Ergaki Nature Park (Western Sayan Mts, Krasnoyarsk Territory). In the present paper, 14 species are reported as new for the lichen flora of study areas, among them: Biatorella flavella is reported for the first time for Russia, Ropalospora viridis is new to Asia, 5 species – Bryoria vrangiana, Dictyocatenulata alba, Elixia flexella, Lecanora compallens and Micarea soralifera – are new for Siberia, Chaenotheca subroscida and Fuscidea arboricola are new for Southern Siberia, 4 species – Absconditella annexa, Caloplaca sorocarpa, Bryobilimbia sanguineoatra and Protothelenella sphinctrinoidella are new for Baikal Siberia, Caloplaca sorocarpa is new for Krasnoyarsk Territory, Pilophorus strumaticus is new for Republic of Buryatia. A full text of herbarium labels, some comments and comparisons with similar species are given. The information about distribution of all mentioned species in Russia and world is also presented. Our records considerably extend the ranges or fill gaps in the formerly disjunctive distributions of these species.

The current list includes 14 species collected from the mountain forest territories of Southern Siberia -Baikal State Nature Biosphere Reserve (Republic of Buryatia) and Ergaki Nature Park (Krasnoyarsk Territory).Studied nature protected areas are situated in the southern part of Siberia in the forest zone of Western Sayan Mts and Khamar-Daban Range.The climate of both regions is very humid and mild, with an annual precipitation about 1000 mm and a mean annual temperature of 0.7 °C.The studied territories lie 670-1600 m above sea level.The main vegetation type is boreal forests (taiga), namely mountain taiga in its southern variant: with Abies sibirica Ledeb., Pinus sibirica Du Tour, Populus suaveolens Fisch., Sorbus sibirica Hedl.and Padus avium Mill.All forests are old-growth and have never been cut down.
The specimens for the present study were collected by I. Urbanavichene (August 2013, 2016, 2017 -in Baikal Reserve;August 2009 andJuly 2010 -in Ergaki Nature Park) and by G. Urbanavichus (August 2002 -in Baikal Reserve).
Sorediate specimens were studied for chemistry by TLC following the procedure by Orange et al. (2010) and spot-tests with K (10 % potassium hydroxide in water), C (saturated solution of calcium hypochlorite) and Pd (paraphenylendiamine).
Note: Species is new to Baikal Siberia.In Russia, it was previously known from the European North and the Altai Mts (Melekhin, 2009;Sedelnikova, 2017).Until recently, this relatively rare species was known only from Europe (Coppins, 2009).
Note: Species is new to Russia.This is poorly known lichen, recorded only few times in Central Europe mainly on decaying Sphagnum sp.(Poelt, Vězda, 1977), but originally described from wood of Larix trunk (Nylander, 1885).
Note: Species is new to Siberia.Most likely it is a circumboreal species.The distribution of this species in the world and Russia requires additional investigations because it was previously treated as a synonym of Bryoria implexa (Hoffm.)Brodo et D. Hawksw.In Russia, Bryoria vrangiana has recently been reported from the Republic of Karelia and Arkhangelsk Region (Tarasova et al., 2015(Tarasova et al., , 2016) ) and Moscow Region (Czernyadjeva et al., 2018).
Brownish-tinged external soredia and not excavate greenish-gray circular soralia, distinctly elevated above the thallus are diagnostic for Caloplaca sorocarpa (in a close species C. ulcerosa Coppins et P. James and C. obscurella (Lahm ex Körber) Th.Fr. soralia are excavate, not circular and distinctly elevated above the thallus).
Note: Species is new to Southern Siberia.This sub-circumboreal species with a scattered distribution was recorded in Russia from the European North and Centre, Ural Mts and Western Siberia (Urbanavichus, 2010).This species occurs in Europe, Asia and North America (Tibell, Beck, 2002).
This species can be identified by its yellowish excipulum and upper stalk of the apothecium, greyish, minutely granular thallus, platy-cracked, globose spores and slender stalk.It is very closely related to C. phaocephala (Turner) Th.Fr.The two species are nearly identical in appearance, but in contrast to the slender stalk and pale gray granular thallus of C. subroscida, the apothecium in C. phaocephala has a more robust stalk, the total length of the apothecium is 6-15 times greater than the central stalk width, and the thallus is brownish-green and scalelike or squamulose (Tibell, Beck, 2002).
Note: Species is new to Siberia.This is the third finding of the species for the lichen biota of Russia, being previously recorded in the Far East -Primorye Territory (Diederich et al., 2008) and in Leningrad Region (Stepanchikova et al., 2010).D. alba is rather widespread in tropical, subtropical, broadleaved zones and known from Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, North and Central America.
Habitually it resembles some non-lichenized genera with hysterothecioid ascomata (e.g.Durella, Hysterium).Elixia flexella is characterized by prolonged to almost orbicular apothecia with jet black margin elevated above the disc level, often appearing gyrose and inrolled.The disc becomes more open with age, unlike the similar species Ptychographa xylographoides Nyl. which has permanently slit-like discs.Both species grow in hard conifer wood and form inapparent thallus composed of dispersed tiny brownish granules among wood fibers, best visible when the substrate is moistened.
Note: Species is new to Southern Siberia.It is widespread in Europe and Eastern North America, but rare reported from Asia.In Russia, the species is widespread in the European North and Centre, Ural Mts (Urbanavichus, 2010), and was reported from Western Siberia (Paukov, Mikhailova, 2011), Eastern Siberia (Zhdanov, 2012) and from Caucasus (Urbanavichus, Urbanavichene, 2014).
It is characterized by having small grayish/greenish circular sorediate thalli (with a yellowish tint) up to 5 cm in diam., surrounded by a distinct brown prothallus which may give an overall brown appearance (Tønsberg, 1992).KOH+ brownish-yellow, Pd+ rust red, UV-; TLC: fumarprotocetraric acid.

Micarea soralifera
Note: Species is new to Siberia.It is the second finding for the lichen flora of Russia, formerly the species was found only in the Northern Caucasus (Urbanavichus, Urbanavichene, 2017).A newly described species has been known from Poland and the Czech Republic (Guzow-Krzemińska et al., 2016) and has been recently reported from Sweden (Svensson et al., 2017).
Sorediate species belonging to the M. prasinagroup is characterized by initially delimited soralia developing directly from the endoxylic thallus or small external areoles, as well as the presence of micareic acid (Guzow-Krzemińska et al., 2016).
It is characterized by the pin-shaped pseudopodetia with terminal, black, ± spherical apothecia.
Note: Species is new to Baikal Siberia.This arctic-alpine to boreal-montane bryophilous species is known in Russia from Arctic, European North and Centre, Siberia and Far East (Urbanavichus, 2010).World distribution: arctic zone and mountains of Europe, Asia, North America (Mayrhofer, 2002).It was also reported from Antarctic (Øvstedal, Smith, 2001).
This species is characterized by an indistinct thallus, small sessile black perithecia with a dull greenish exciple and elongate submuriform ascospores.Another species known from Southern Siberia is P. sphinctrinoides (Nyl.)H. Mayrhofer et Poelt, which is distinguished by larger partly immersed perithecia and larger muriform ascospores (Mayrhofer, 2002).
Note: Species is new to Asia.In Russia, the species has a scattered distribution in European part from Kaliningrad Region to Ural Mts (Urbanavichus, 2010).R. viridis is common and widely distributed throughout Europe and North America (e.g.Tønsberg, 1992;Lendemer, 2011).
This species forms a grayish-green areolate thallus with bright green, usually confluent soralia arising from the apices of the areoles.Thallus and soralia C-, K-, Pd-, UV+ white; TLC: perlatolic acid.R. viridis can be confused with sterile Fuscidea arboricola and F. pusilla Tønsberg, but they differ chemically in containing fumarprotocetraric acid and divaricatic acid, respectively.