In Search Of Taiwan'S Hidden Lichen Diversity

This trip was generously supported through a donation from the Feay family. Matt and Thorsten’s previous visit to Taiwan had focused on collecting in northern sites; this one concentrated on locations along the southern and east coasts, where they made nearly 400 collections of lichens and free-living algae. This visit was coordinated by Jen-Pan Huang (former FM postdoc, and current Associate Research Fellow at Academia Sinica in Taiwan) and Yi-Hsiu Kuan (Administrative Assistant for JP’s team), and joined by Trevor Padgett and Zong-Yu Shen, PhD candidates at Academia Sinica. Many tropical and subtropical lichens were collected from a range of sites, including from a fossilized coral reef that is now in the middle of a forest. Some lichens even contained chemicals that would fluoresce under UV light at night (see Instagram video for more). In addition to collecting, Matt and Thorsten enjoyed some Cordyceps soup and dishes containing Nostoc cyanobacteria (photosynthetic bacteria that forms lichens, and associates with a range of plants). This summer, interns working with Matt will use DNA barcoding to identify algal symbionts from the collected specimen.
June 7. 2024