Happy New Year! The colour-coded list to the right shows the status of the project as of the end of 2023; compare it with the list in last January's newsletter to see how far we've come. It's clearly an improvement, but equally, it shows how much we still have to do. There are scores of articles about lichen genera still to write, thousands of lichen species are missing, and there are reams of information still to add about the effects of climate change, air pollution and more on lichen diversity and survival. It's more than enough to keep us occupied for decades to come. Here's to a productive year!

Project news

• The task force's first collaboration article, Lichens and air pollution was started in Draft space last month. Everyone is invited to add whatever bits they can, or to make suggestions about what needs clarifying, expanding, cutting, etc.
• A Draft:Lichen page has also been added, to allow for a complete rewrite of the current lichen article, which needs a major overhaul and update. We anticipate this one will take most of 2024! Plans are to develop a solid outline before starting any writing.

New members

• Andrevan
• MariahKRogers

Articles of note

DYK appearances:

• Buellia frigida – one of the first lichens in space (December 22)

New good articles:

• Buellia frigida – (December 7)

New featured article:

• Teloschistaceae – (December 29)

Newsletter challenge

Esculenta accepted last month's challenge and updated the Malmidea article with 14 additional species now recognised by Species Fungorum as being in the genus.

This month, we're looking for someone to update the Gassicurtia article, last updated in January of 2021. According to Species Fungorum, there are now four additional species in the genus. The editor who updates the article will receive public kudos in the next newsletter.