Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region
by T.H. Nash III, B.D. Ryan, P. Diederich, C. Gries & F. Bungartz (editors)
The Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region is a seminal work on the species diversity of lichenized and lichenicolous fungi from the Sonoran Desert and adjoining areas. In three volumes treats 1,836 species of lichens and 135 species of lichenicolous fungi, a total of 1,971 species in three volumes.
All three volumes are made available here for download as PDFs; hard copies of volume I and II can still be purchased, volume III is unfortunately now out-of-print [please see instructions for purchasing below].
Volume I was published in 2002, it includes an extensive introduction with a register of lichen terminology, keys to the genera, and provides detailed descriptions for 123 genera with 573 species.Thirty six authors contributed to this first volume.
Volume II was published in 2004, it continues the key to the genera with an additional 109 genera and 772 species treated. It also includes the treatment of Lichenicolous Fungi with a key to the genera and taxonomic treatment of this group of fungi. Volume II also has a color insert with 94 species illustrated (plus 2 microscope images of apothecial sections characteristic for the genus Lecanora). Sixty five authors contributed to volume II.
Volume III was published in 2007, it completes the treatment of genera and species from the region, with detailed descriptions of 39 genera and 491 species. The book adds several species from genera treated in the previous volumes, additional genera and species of lichenicolous fungi, a key to sterile crustose species, and a revised cyanolichen key. Volume III also includes an index of genera and species treated in all three volumes, an index of newly described taxa and an index to all major identification keys. A color insert illustrates 224 species not illustrated in the previous volume. Forty seven authors contributed to volume III.
The area covered in the three volumes is the so-called Greater Sonoran Desert Region, i.e., the Sonoran Desert in a strict sense, plus adjoining regions (in the US: southern California and Arizona; in Mexico: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, northern Sinaloa, western Chihuahua):
DOWNLOADs (PDF)
Please note that, with exception of Volume I, the PDFs shared here were compiled from the original proofs used to print these books. Volume I is an exception, because the proofs are unfortunately missing and the PDF shared here therefore had to be compiled again from a slightly older version of the original word files. Some pages (e.g., the Literature section) had to be scanned in and we used optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the images into text files.
Introduction, key to the genera (part one), detailed descriptions and keys to 123 genera with 573 species.
Key to the genera (continued), lichenicolous fungi, detailed descriptions and keys to 109 genera and 772 species, color plates.
Detailed descriptions and keys to 39 genera and 491 species, crustose lichen key, revised cynolichen key, index to genera and species, color plates.
Additional Resources:
To quickly find, which genus is treated in which volume, you can download this PDF to the genera treated in all three volumes. This overview was never published as part of the original books, but for using the books it can be printed out and provides a useful guide to quickly find where the different genera are treated.
Purchase
Volume III is unfortunately now out-of-print.
You can still purchase Volume I for $30 and Volume II for $57 [the higher price is justified, because volume II is almost twice the size of volume I].
For detailed instructions, if you are interested in receiving a hard copy, please send an email to tom.nash@asu.edu, copying frank.bungartz@asu.edu.
We ship world-wide, but for countries outside the US and Canada, additional shipping costs will apply.
