As a subset of WP:FUNGI, the lichen task force is working to improve coverage of the world's lichens – unique organisms composed of one or more fungal partners with one or more photosynthetic partners. A growing body of evidence suggests that some of the roughly 1000 secondary metabolites produced by various lichens may prove instrumental in our ongoing battle against harmful pathogens. Want to learn more? Join us!

Articles of note

Esculenta has nominated two articles for GA:

• Verrucariaceae – a family of mostly lichenized fungi found primarily on rocks and soil in the Northern Hemisphere
• Solorina crocea – also known as "orange chocolate chip lichen", this was one of the first lichen species to be formally scientifically described

Project news

It's been another busy month for the task force. Among the accomplishments:

• We've tagged another 700 articles, categories and templates as being under the purview of the task force.
• Importance levels have now been set for nearly all of the task force's articles.
• Thousands of articles have been tagged with lichen class/order/genus/species categories as appropriate.
• Work has continued on converting those articles which still using old "taxobox" templates to the newer automatic taxobox and speciesbox templates. There are now fewer than 95 left to modify.
• MerielGJones has created articles for a number of important lichenologists, including James D. Lawrey, Thomas George Allan Green, Pier Luigi Nimis, Hannes Hertel, Ludger Kappen, and Christian Leuckert. Esculenta added one for Georges Clauzade.
• Dozens of articles have been created for genera and species of lichen and lichenicolous fungi.
• The outline of lichens is now almost completely referenced.
• Work has continued on the Draft:Glossary of lichen terms, which will hopefully be ready to move into main space within the month.

Lichen news

• A recent study strongly suggests that industrial forestry, along with the introduction of nitrogen, is the main cause of lichen declines in Norway spruce forests. This decline has resulted in "cascading effects on biodiversity and function of boreal forest canopies", according to the study's authors.