Book Review: The Lives of Lichens

The Lives of Lichens: A Natural History by Robert Lucking & Toby Spribille
Hardcover – US$35.00 – ISBN: 9780691247274, 288 pages – 7.5 x 9.5 inches, 250+ color photos and illustrations,
Publication date: 04 June, 2024

Robert Lucking is Head of the Department of Evolution and Biodiversity at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum of Berlin, Freie Universitat Berlin, where he manages collections containing nearly one million lichens, fungi, and bryophytes. Toby Spribille is Canada Research Chair in Symbiosis and Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

The Lives of the Natural World is an authoritative new Princeton University Press series of richly illustrated natural histories written by world-class experts. Combining lively, engaging text with a wealth of color photographs and illustrations, these inviting and comprehensive introductory guides explore the evolution, behaviors, and ecologies of fascinating organisms, and offer brand-new science and modern insights. The books feature in-depth, essay-led chapters and beautifully illustrated profiles of selected species. The 14 current books in the series cover bats, frogs, snakes, spiders, lichens, bees, butterflies, seaweeds, sharks, octopuses, viruses, beetles, fungi, and moths. If I had a bigger books budget and a spare shelf on my living room bookcase I would buy all 14 books in the series!

The Lives of Lichens: A Natural History provides an in-depth, up-to-date natural history of lichens, blending hundreds of superb macrophotographs and illustrations with essay-oriented chapters on symbiosis, biology of lichens, lichen architecture, evolution and taxonomy, lichen ecosystems, and lichens and people. The book includes an index, a glossary of lichen terms, and a list of useful lichen-related books and websites.

One of the book’s most attractive features is the inclusion of double-page essays on 38 of the world’s most interesting lichen species. Each lichen is showcased with a full-page color photograph on the right-hand page, accompanied by a world map showing the location(s) of the lichen and an essay profiling the species on the left-hand page. Some of my favorites include British Soldier Lichen, Yellow Wall Lichen, Golden Trentepohlia Algae, Tree Bloodspot, Pored Net-coral Lichen, Andine Shingle Lichen, Red Snow Tea Lichen, and Highlighter Lichen.

Although a long list of technical lichen terms is inevitably needed in this book to explain the complexities of lichens and their ecosystems, the text is presented clearly and the reader does not need to possess a Ph.D. in botany or biology to understand it. The use of plentiful, well designed illustrations and diagrams, coupled with the superb photographs, adds to the clarity of the authors’ explanations of the complex world of lichens.

In short, if you have a passion for lichens then this is a great book for you!

The Lives of Lichens: A Natural History is not a field guide. If you wish to identify lichens found in Ohio, the first publication you should acquire is the Common Lichens of Ohio Field Guide, by Ray Showman, with photographs by Robert Klips published by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. This is a free publication. In addition, Robert Klips’s new field guide, Common Mosses, Liverworts and Lichens of Ohio, published by Ohio University Press, is a great book to acquire.

-Ian Adams