The maintenance of protected lichen species and their biodiversity in general depends on good management practices based on their distribution and habitat preferences. To date, 10 of the 17 protected lichen species of Hungary have been recorded in the Bakony Mts including the Balaton Uplands region. Habitat preferences of three protected Cladonia species (C. arbuscula, C. mitis and C. rangiferina) growing on underlying rocks of red sandstone, basalt, Pannonian sandstone and gravel were investigated by detailed sampling. We recorded aspect, underlying rock type, soil depth, pH and CaCO3 content, habitat type (as defined by the General National Habitat Classification System Á-NÉR), all species of lichen, bryophyte and vascular plants as well as percentage cover of exposed rock, total bryophytes, lichens, vascular plants and canopy, degree of disturbance and animal impacts. Sporadic populations of these species mostly exist at the top of hills and mountains in open acidofrequent oak forests, but they may occur in other habitats, such as closed acidofrequent oak forests, slope steppes on stony soils, siliceous open rocky grasslands, open sand steppes, wet and mesic pioneer scrub and dry Calluna heaths. Cladonia rangiferina was found to grow beneath higher canopy cover than either C. arbuscula or C. mitis in the Balaton Uplands. Furthermore, there were significant differences in canopy cover between occupied and unoccupied quadrats in the case of all three species. Cladonia rangiferina is a good indicator species of natural habitats in Hungary due to its restricted distribution and low ecological tolerance. These results may lead to the adoption of effective conservation methods (e.g. game exclusion, artificial dispersal) in the future.

Cladonia is one of the largest lichen-forming ascomycete genera. It was formerly divided into ten sections, three of which, Crustaceae (Cladina), Tenues, and Impexae, are called the reindeer lichens. While previous studies have elucidated the relationships between species and sections, they often examined only one or a few specimens of each species in the analysis. This study examined the monophyly of selected members of sections Crustaceae, Tenues, and Impexae and their relationships in the genus Cladonia using the internal transcribed spacer region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS rDNA) and the mitochondrial small subunit gene of the mitochondrial ribosomal DNA (mtSSU). The phylogenetic tree contained four clades, two representing species in section Impexae, one representing species that belong to sections Crustaceae and Tenues, and one clade with C. arbuscula and related species. Five of 22 species, C. pycnoclada, C. stellaris, C. evansii, C. ciliata and C. subtenuis, showed monophyly in the phylogenetic tree; some of these 5 species have been shown previously to be monophyletic. The thallus branching pattern was interpreted as an important heritable character using the mtSSU network. Three duplets of paraphyletic species were further examined using ITS rDNA haplotype networks and AMOVA analysis. The results for the species duplets showed some mixing of haplotypes but the AMOVA analysis provided support for species separation within the duplets. While the evidence supports distinct species, further study is needed to conclusively show separate species in these duplets.

The species from Cladonia section Unciales are characterized by the absence of squamules and soredia on the corticate podetia and the presence of usnic acid. Different subspecies, varieties and forms have been distinguished in the type species C. uncialis. In this study, a molecular phylogeny of Cladonia uncialis and members of the traditionally recognized section Unciales, along with additional potentially allied species, was constructed. DNA sequences from three gene loci, namely ITS rDNA, IGS rDNA and ß-tubulin, were analyzed using Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian methods. Eleven species were analyzed for the first time using DNA sequence data. Cladonia uncialis subsp. uncialis and subsp. biuncialis were recognized as distinct taxa. The recognition of C. pseudostellata as a species was not supported by the analyses, but it represents a hypothamnolic acid chemotype, which is reported here as new to Europe (Scotland). The presence of subsp. biuncialis in North America (Newfoundland) was substantiated. The subsp. uncialis usually lacks squamatic acid, but in the eastern United States a morph referred to as subsp. uncialis does normally contain that acid. However, this morph did not attain taxonomic recognition based on phylogenetic analyses. All the other taxa formerly included in sect. Unciales turned out to belong to other groups of Cladonia, mainly Amaurocraeae, Borya, Divaricatae, and Perviae. The formerly recognized genus Cladina (reindeer lichens) is non-monophyletic, consisting of three groups within Cladonia, making the concept Cladina even nomenclaturally useless. Alternative topology tests rejected the monophyly of C. pseudostellata, section Unciales and Cladina.

Growth rates and the ability to date an organism can greatly contribute to understanding its population biology and community dynamics. 1n 1954, V. N. Andreev proposed a method to date regularly branched members of Cladonia, a fruticose lichen, using total thallus length and number of internodes. No research, however, has demonstrated the reliability of this technique or compared its estimates to those derived by other means. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of 14C/C ratios to determine lichen age and growth rate in Cladonia stygia (Fr.) Ruoss collected from north-western Alaska, USA. The average growth rate using 14C/C ratios was 6·5 mm yr−1, which was not significantly different from growth rates derived by Andreev's internode method (average = 6·2 mm yr−1); thus, suggesting the reliability of Andreev's simple field method for dating lichens.