Survey of Lichens of the Upper Plains and Foothills Region of Iraq

ABSTRACTThe information available about Iraqi lichens is very limited. The current study is the first to investigate the lichens in the Nineveh and Upper Jazira districts located within upper plains and & foothills region in Iraq. Lichens from many types substrates have been gathered from four sites, of which three were located in the Nineveh district and one in the Upper Jazira district. Lichens were identified then classified based on their external appearance and internal anatomy as well as chemical spot tests. The results showed the identification of 19 lichen species, 12 of them were crustose (its ratio is equal to 63.1%) and 5 squamulose (26.3%), while there were two foliose species (10.5%), no fruticose species were found. It was found that all recorded species were new for the two districts, and that two species were new records in Iraq: Acarospora placodiiformis and Buellia zoharyi. The distribution of the recorded species was variable between the two districts and between the four study sites, the most dominant species were Lecanora muralis and Fulgensia subbracteata. Most of the recorded genera were poor in species number. The largest genera was Caloplaca represented by three species, followed by the genera Acarospora, Collema and Squamarina.