Great Smoky Mountains National Park's first Lichen Bio-Quest

The first Lichen Bio-Quest was held at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont near Townsend, TN, on 19-20 June, 2004. More than 30 participants included high school teachers and students, Park volunteers and staff, area residents, and professional lichenologists. The primary goal was first to provide an educational component, including lichen morphology, growth forms, terminology, and identification using lecture and video-microscopy presentations, followed by a field component collecting lichens in different habitats. H. Thorsten Lumbsch, an expert on crustose lichens, and Steven B. Selva, an expert on calicioid (stubble) lichens, served as instructors, foray captains, and helped identify specimens. Lower-elevation collection sites were located in the Tremont area (Lumber Ridge Trail and Spruce Flats Falls Trail) and ranged from 405-550 m. High-elevation sites (Indian Gap, Spruce-Fir Nature Trail, and the Balsam Mountain Road area) ranged from 1094 to 1706 m. Eighty-eight lichen and lichenicolous fungi species were identified, including 10 new published Park and Tennessee records. The new lichen records were: Aspicilia caesiocinerea, Calicium glaucellum, Chaenotheca brunneola, Placynthiella icmalea, Trapelia glebulosa, T. placodioides, and Trapeliopsis flexuosa. The new lichenicolous fungi records were: Mycocalicium subtile, Phaeocalicium polyporaeum, and Sphinctrina turbinata.