Welcome on the websites dedicated to Czech lichens!

Lichen are extraordinary organisms. They are formed by the symbiosis of fungi and its photosynthetic partner (alga or cyanobacteria). Thanks to their mutual cooperation lichens are able to inhabit various types of extreme habitats. We can find them on bare rock superficies, in polar regions or in deserts. Of a particular interest to humans is their remarkable bioindicative ability. Lichens are extremely sensitive to air pollution. However, their communities also largely vary according to actual methods of land management and in reaction to the ongoing climatic changes. Therefore, their distributions and abundances can tell us a lot about the historical and current stage of our countryside.

This Atlas, comprising all the about 1750 species known from the Czech Republic, was created for a better accessibility and comprehensibility of data on lichen occurrence and ecology. Information about ecological preferences, distribution and abundances of each taxon are listed. Photos and maps of distribution are included. We hope the Atlas will serve well for scientific and educational purposes, to professional and amateur lichenologists from the Czech Republic and abroad. The data compiled here should also help to improve the protection of the Czech environment.

We are still intensively working on development of this website. Gradually, new information, records and pictures are being added. Distributional data for the maps is obtained from the Dalibor database.

Recommended citation: Malíček J., Palice Z., Bouda F., Knudsen K., Šoun J., Vondrák J. & Novotný P. (2024): Atlas českých lišejníků. – dalib.cz [21. 12. 2024]

The total amount of data in the database: 176 673