Mireia Giralt has been studying the Rinodina species in the Iberian
Peninsula for over ten years, and has published some 13 papers on the
genus to date. This new book represents a synthesis of her knowledge,
and brings data on species growing on rock, trees, mosses, and lichens
together. Seventy-six species of Rinodina and two of Rinodinella are
accepted, along with "Buellia" parvula of uncertain generic
position. The Iberian Peninsula is thus amongst the richest region for
these lichens so far discovered. Information is also presented on 11
excluded species, mostly based on past misdeterminations. The species
are keyed out by habitat, something which always worries me as it
means that if a species turns up on a different substrate it may not
be correctly identified. For each species, full bibliographic
citations and types are provided, but not basionyms and synonyms
unless used in recent years; full synonymies would perhaps have made
the work more comprehensive but at the same time would have increased
the length substantially. Details of where further information can be
sought is, however, provided, as are descriptions, notes on chemistry,
observations and lists of specimens examined. Ascospore sketches are
collected together in the final series of plates, but no habitat
photographs or micrographs are provided; again, both would have been
helpful, especially to show variation in ascospores as they mature,
but this would have involved considerably more work. That the work is
in English will greatly extend its audience and use around the
Mediterranean, but I hope that this will not limit its use in the
Iberian Peninsula itself. This is another example of the high level of
understanding lichenology in Spain has reached, and the author is to
be thanked for synthesizing her studies and making them more readily
accessible.
Dr. David L. Hawksworth
Rev.: Mycotaxon vol. LXXXV, January-March 2002
