In 1993, Pier Luigi Nimis published his Lichens of Italy, dubbed by the author as his “New York Telephone Directory”, with its 897 pages weighing in at 2·5 kg. This annotated catalogue was a real labour of love, and truly weighty in terms of thoroughness and scholarship. Apart from the extensive references to the occurrences of species for each of the (then) 20 administrative regions, brief but well-researched notes were provided on the ecology and distribution (in Italy and beyond) of each species. Since its publication, I have regularly delved into this book asking “what did Nimis have to say about it?” – I was usually rewarded with the required answer, or at least with a good lead.
This ‘second annotated catalogue’ is not merely an update of the first, but summarizes 23 years of lichenological research in Italy and reflects, up to the date of publication, the latest in taxonomic advancements and nomenclature. For records of taxa for administrative regions, most of the references in the 1993 catalogue are not repeated, but citations from over 1200 subsequent papers concerning Italian lichens are given instead. Hence this second catalogue must be regarded as a companion volume to the first.
As in the 1993 catalogue, each species entry is provided with notes on distribution, ecological preferences and taxonomic or identification problems. These are updated but what is new is a codified string of fields pertaining to growth form, photobiont, reproductive strategy, substrata, commonness-rarity in bioclimatic subdivisions of Italy, altitudinal distribution, ecological indicator values (substratum pH, solar irradiation, aridity, eutrophication), poleotolerance, and other information.
The presented order of genera and species remains alphabetic, although a systematic arrangement of genera is provided. In his introduction, the author refers to the difficulties that a compiler of a catalogue or checklist faces in order to keep abreast of the “explosion of molecular phylogeny” and the numerous nomenclatural changes that ensue, often incompletely as all the species in a group have rarely been satisfactorily sequenced. In this regard, his catalogue is remarkably up to date and he has adopted even the most recent taxonomic proposals, with the wise exception of a few that are dubious for scientific or nomenclatural reasons. To assist the reader in such matters, the generic accounts summarize these recent innovations under the ‘mother’ genus (e.g. Aspicilia, Caloplaca and Opegrapha), and indicates where there are major gaps in knowledge or research. A suggested ‘new’ generic placement is given for some species, but in collaboration with other authors, 15 new combinations and one nomen novum are formally presented.
The introductory sections include an insightful, 6-page ‘Brief history of lichenology in Italy’ and a 3-page ‘Brief outline of Italy and its lichen biota’, the latter supplementing the sections ‘The lichenological exploration of Italy’ and ‘A phytoclimatical outline’ in the 1993 book.
The increased weight of this second catalogue perhaps reflects the increase of accepted infrageneric taxa from 2145 to 2704. In the few weeks that I have possessed this book, it has become a constant source of reference, which means that my wrists have been well exercised taking it off the bookshelf – perhaps I will just leave it on my desk!
