Diversity and distribution pattern of lichens in some prominent localities of Nilgiris Biosphere of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Many lichen specimens were collected from seven agroclimatic zones of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve namely Udhagamandalam, Kotagiri, Kundah, Coonoor, Gudalur, Pandalur and Doddabetta. The study resulted in a total of 38 lichen species belonged to 17 genera within 10 lichen families. The family Parmeliaceae was dominant with maximum record of 56.7% of total lichens. The majority of lichen diversity was recorded at an altitude of 979 m with the total representation of 21.6%. Among the substrates corticolous lichen was found to be abundant with 81% followed by saxicolous (8.1%) and terricolous (5.4%). The majority of lichen belonged to foliose growth form which accounted for 45.9%. A species of fruticose lichen Ramalina obtusata (Arnold) Bitter, identified at an altitude of 2,197 m is a new addition to Tamil Nadu