Terricolus lichen genus Cladonia in India: substrate and habitat preferences more

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW LUCKNOW SECTION II : CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY (INCLUDING FOSSIL CRYPTOGAMS) -POSTER PRESENTATION I P.II.4 Terricolous lichen genus Cladonia in India: substrate and habitat preferences Himanshu Rai 1,2, D.K. Upreti 1, Rajan K Gupta 2 1 Lichenology Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute, Rana PratapMarg, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, lndia-226001, 2Pt. LM.S Govt. PG College (HNB Garhwal Central University), Rishikesh (Dehradun), Uttarakhand, lndia-249201. himanshurai08 @ yahoo.com Lichens, the symbiotic association between a green (photobiont) or blue-green (cyanobiont) alga and fungi (mycobiont) constitutes a unique group of plants. Lichen taxonomy is based on mycobiont which constitutes 95% of the thallus biomass and produce sexual structures (apothecia). Lichenized fungal family Cladoniaceae is the biggest soil inhabiting lichen family, occupying the status of seventh largest lichen family of Indian lichen community. Cladonia is the biggest genus of the family represented by 58 species. The genus is characterized by dimorphic thallus i.e. the primary thallus is squamulose whereas the secondary thallus is the f ruticose body known as Podetia. The photobiont is unicellular green algae Asterochloris. A study was conducted on the 3000 specimens of Cladonia lodged in lichen herbarium, National Botanical Research Institute (LWG), to assess the substrate and habitat preferences of the genus, using multivariate approach (PCA and cluster analysis). Though the altitudinal distribution range of the genus is quite vast (3 m to 3900 m), preferential distribution of majority of species is in temperate (1500- 3000m) to alpine regions (3000-3500 m). The genus prefers terricolous (on soil) substrate regime, though 10% of the species are also found on bark (corticolous). 133