Felix Schumm has published a number of books on the anatomical and microscopic details of various groups of lichens. The latest one with John Elix illustrates Australian lichen specimens issued and distributed as Exsiccati (273 specimens) with some additional specimens from Schumm’s own herbarium (52 specimens). The aim is to make these lichens known to a wider audience across the world than could be reached by the specimens alone. This is reminiscent of the issuing in the 1880s of plates by J. E. Brown of Australian flowering plants, published by the Government Printer in Adelaide (Brown Reference Brown1882). These superb, detailed lithographs of specimens showing the key taxonomic features were published with a similar aim and have gained considerable taxonomic value (Eichler & Eichler Reference Eichler and Eichler1962).
This two volume work contains details of about 280 species, of which about 80% are macrolichens and nearly half of these Parmeliaceae, including 44 species of Xanthoparmelia, a particularly speciose and challenging genus in Australia. Some species are represented by details of more than one collection and for a few there is additional material from New Zealand. Each species account contains a description taken from the published volumes of Flora of Australia (mainly volumes 54–58), specimen numbers and label details, macroscopic photographs, micrographs of thallus and ascomata sections (stained and unstained) and collages of images taken from TLC plates indicating the evidence for the lichen substances present. The introduction explains very briefly the project and the methods used for the HPTLC analyses. All the photographs are in colour and the quality is very high. The micrographs (all in colour) represent the sections much as they would appear in slides made for identification purposes although made with a freeze microtome and a high quality research microscope. For anyone working on the Australian lichen flora, and for anyone interested in lichen diversity, this work has much to offer. It is not intended for identification and includes only about 7·5% of the Australian lichen flora (McCarthy Reference McCarthy2015), but as an aid to supplement the lichen volumes of the Flora of Australia it could be very useful. Details of Felix Schumm’s other books and some of his other images can be found on his website: www.fschumm.de.
