A team of researchers from Maharaja’s College, Kochi, discovers four new species of lichens from Western Ghats

The ‘Lichenology Lab’ astatine a country of the Department of Botany astatine Maharaja’s College, Kochi, is unassuming astatine archetypal sight. A fewer alloy cupboards person been packed against its walls and cardboard boxes, files and books are piled neatly connected the desks. This seemingly mean space, however, opens the doors to a fascinating satellite of lichens. A herbarium, it houses implicit 4,000 dried specimens of lichens. 

So what are lichens? Associate Professor of Botany and in-charge of the Lichenology laboratory astatine the college, Stephen Sequiera, explains: “They are organisms formed from a symbiotic narration betwixt a fungus and algae oregon cyanobacterium. Though they are commonly recovered connected trees, rocks and soil, they inactive stay mostly unexplored,” helium says.

Stephen and his doctoral scholars Arun Christy, Aswathi Anilkumar and Arsha S Mohan person discovered 4 caller taxon of lichens from the Western Ghats, a milestone successful biodiversity research. While the discoveries reaffirm the lichen diverseness of the Western Ghats, they besides item the value of their conservation and sustainable utilisation, says Stephen.

Newly-identified species

The recently identified taxon – Parmotrema sahyadricum (discovered from Wayanad), Solenopsora rhizomorpha (from Eravikulam and Mathikettanshola National Parks), Buelloa ghattensis (Mathikettanshola National Park) and Pyxine janakiae (Mathikettanshola National Park) – person been published successful planetary technological journals. The enactment that started successful 2022 resulted successful these discoveries. The squad besides recorded much than 50 taxon of lichens which are caller reports to the Kerala portion of the Western Ghats.

The postulation astatine the lichen herbarium astatine the assemblage is 1 of the astir extended ones astatine assemblage level and matches that of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE)-Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) and the KSCSTE-Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institutes (JNTBGRI) successful Kerala.

Looking for lichens

Lichens are each astir us, if we observe them closely, they uncover their concealed worlds to us, says this clump of researchers. They tin look precise antithetic based connected wherever they grow, appearing arsenic fungal formations connected histrion trunks and arsenic writer connected the ungraded oregon rocks. In the herbarium, successful their dried form, they look reduced to a grey smear oregon a discoloured knot of thread. 

Out of the 3,000 taxon of lichens successful India, 1,706 of them are recovered successful the Western Ghats, says Stephen, who has been studying lichens since 1998, erstwhile helium was pursuing his doctoral programme astatine the KFRI, Peechi, Thrissur. He completed a KSCSTE-funded probe task connected the lichens of Kerala, successful 2022, nether which helium developed a dedicated Lichen House astatine the Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences (MBGIPS) successful Kozhikode. This facility, Stephen says, has implicit 100 taxon and was acceptable up for the payment of students, researchers and the wide public, to spot and research lichen taxon that whitethorn different spell unnoticed. Even lichen taxon that are recovered successful higher altitudes tin beryllium seen astatine the facility.

Biomonitoring agents

Kerala has implicit 800 taxon of lichens, helium adds. Lichens play a captious relation arsenic biomonitoring agents owing to their c sequestration quality and sensitivity to aerial pollution. They sorb pollutants straight from the air; thereby indicating the wellness of the environment. “In 2022, arsenic an experiment, we collected lichens from Wayanad and planted them successful the Manjummel-Edayar region. After 28 days, erstwhile we checked, we could corroborate the beingness of dense metals specified arsenic Copper, Zinc and Lead successful them, which indicates the level of aerial contamination successful the region,” says Stephen, who has described astir 15 caller taxon of plants from Kerala, including orchids, balsams and bamboos. 

Lichens besides enactment arsenic fertilisers successful forests, arsenic they interruption down rocks, disintegrating it to soil, fixing nitrogen and letting different beingness forms grow. “Lichens person medicinal properties too. Some taxon person anti fungal, anti tumor and anti crab properties, they are utilized arsenic nutrient preservatives and flavouring agents arsenic well,” Stephen explains.

Stone angiosperm lichen, popularly known arsenic kalpasi successful Tamil and Dagad Phool successful Hindi, is wide sold arsenic a flavouring agent, particularly successful biryanis. Forest dwellers and indigenous communities, who cognize the medicinal worth of immoderate lichen taxon cod and merchantability them, too. 

For the young scholars Arun, Ashwati and Arsha, who chose to survey lichens, they are a changeless root of inspiration. “There is inactive precise small lit connected lichens, and to a researcher, they clasp immense potential,” says Arun.