Diversity of corticolous lichens on some host plants in limestone forest, Amphoe Nong Hin, Loei province

Abstract

The effect of habitat characteristics and properties on corticolous lichen diveristy in three host plants including Cycas pectinata Griff., Dracaena cochinchinensis (Lour.) S. C. Chen, and Dracaena jayniana Wilkin & Suksathan was studied in limestone forest at Amphoe Nong Hin, Loei Province. The hypothesis is that habitat characteristic and properties have the effects on corticolous lichen diversity in the three host plants. This study found a total of 14 families, 32 genera and 57 species of lichens. There are 14 families, 23 genera and 40 species of lichens on C. pectinata, 12 families, 22 genera and 39 species on D. cochinchinensis and 9 families, 17 genera and 35 species on D. jayniana. The species richness (Shannon-Wiener Index) of lichens on C. pectinata, D. cochinchinensis and D. jayniana are 8.70 ± 0.06, 10.71 ± 0.06 and 8.91 ± 0.08 respectively. This study found 4 new lichen species of records including Hyperphyscia syncolla (Tuck. ex Nyl.) Kalb., Julella vitrispora (Cooke & Harkness) M. E. Barr., Pyrenula interducta (Nyl.) Zahlbr. and Pyrenula leucotrypa (Nyl.) Upreti. Moreover, bark water-holding capacity, bark crevice depth and bark pH were not correlated with the number of species per plant.