My favourite introductory work on lichens is this book by William Purvis

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/LICHENS_PB.html?id=mAhuQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

For field guides to the British Isles and Ireland species, check out the latest edition by Frank Dobson.

animistix wow! That is amazing, and it poses more questions than it answers! Can this fungus survive without its photobiont? What sort of explanations have been given for how such symbiotic relationships began? Can the fungus accidentally pick up a different photibiont? And if so, is it called a different Lichen?

Thanks for the book recommendation. I have managed to find a copy and ordered it. Hopefully it will begin to answer some of my questions! You may well have ignited a life-long interest.

This was amazingly well done. You can see a true passion for lichen.

Thanks for your support!

Thanks for this suggestion C O we have taken it!

I'm taking a class in lichens, and it is hard to learn all about these. Once you get to share , makes it worthwhile!

WoodlandsTV It’s beautiful! I love it 🙂

If you see trees with alot of lichen, it means the area is healthy. Lichen won't grow in areas with pollution.

Books on lichen are as difficult as mushrooms in general because we are largely ignorant of them and it is a extremely diverse lifeform, making it difficult to write a book on it.

only certain types….lichen is very diverse as diverse as mushrooms, literally millions of different kinds. fungi are the most diverse lifeform on earth, thousands of more times diverse than plants or animals.