New Zealand’s amazing diversity of Lichens - ways to Enlichenment!

Speaker: Marley Ford, Private Consultant.

Lichens are a conspicuous part of New Zealand’s ecosystems, but a group not well known by many. Working towards curing ‘lichen blindness’ this talk offers an introduction into the symbiotic world of lichenized fungi. From mountains to the sea, lichens can survive anywhere… even space? In New Zealand we have 10% of the world's lichen diversity with more than 2050 species. Many more are undescribed or unreported. Of our currently recognised species over half are classed as “Data Deficient” - meaning we know little about their distribution, abundance, and ecology. Further, New Zealand currently has no full-time lichenologists and only a handful of people working on them at all. From sexy pavement lichen to one named after Jacinda Arden – these enigmas are all around us! Find out what a lichen is, what they do and how you can go about identifying them, plus an outline of where to find the best and most current lichen resources in New Zealand.