Lichens of North America by Irwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff, Stephen Sharnoff

4 Pages·2002·1.9 MB·English

by  Review By: Samuel Hammer

RllODORA,
Vol. 104, No. 917, 96-99. 2002
pp.
BOOK
REVIEW
Lichens of Norlh America by Irwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Shar-
+
nott\ and Stephen Shainoff. 2001 xxiii 795 color
pp. illus.
.
ISBN
photos, line drawings, and dot distribution maps. 0-
New
300-08249-5
$69.95 (hardcover). Yale University Press,
Haven, CT.
Lichens, lowly, unlovely hchens arc the unlikely topic the
o("
volume hand. Lichens North America production of pure
at of a
is
manner
visual splendor. It brings lichens to lite in a that will not
soon be matched. the result of the prodigious effort, sublmie
It is
and singular devotion of Stephen Sharnoff and
artistry, the late
Duran whose
Sylvia Sharnoff, photographs of lichens are the best
have ever seen. Their co-author, Irwin Brodo, wrote the accom-
I
panying descriptions and commentary for the photographs, nearly
every one of which small masterpiece. Whether
a a close-
is is
it
up shot or a portrait of lichens in their natural habitat, each image
invites the reader appreciate, to touch, even to smell the
t(^ li-
my
own
chens. Having attempted on over the past two decades
am
photograph and
to lichens, thrilled with yes, a jealous
T little
the success of the images on these pages.
of,
An
introduction of over one hundred pages precedes the main
(taxonomic) part of the Each chapter the introduction
text.
oi^
message
starts with an epigram, sending a potent that implies the
importance of lichens in literature and in natural history. While
Browning
they are the subject of soliloquies by the likes of and
Thoreau, lichens have, in fact, been relatively neglected over the
past couple of centuries by the scientific community. The intro-
wrong
duction attempts to right this with succinct discussions of
lichen mort^hology, chemistry, biogeography, and
classification,
However,
reproduction. the attempt less than successful, least
is at
from The problem
a scientific perspective. greatest that the
is
issues raised in the introduction are not treated in sufficient depth.
The
chapters, which are generally well written, correspond an
to
abbreviated of references (not cited in the text) that are found
list
at the back of the book. The bibliography much too short. Little
is
way new many
in the of literature offered, and of the sources
is
date from the 1970s and "80s, the height of co-author Brodo's
lichenological career. For example, the chapter on the geography
of North American The
lichens offers less than ten references.
96
Book Review
97
20021
authors defend unwarranted brevity with the rationahzation
this
and pubh-
that the references are general that "sixty-five other
cations were consulted." The fact that none of these pubhcations
was cited for the benefit of interested readers a hint that Lichens
is
of North America less than a serious scientific contribution.
is
One
of the high points of the introduction a chapter offering
is
useful hints for observing and collecting lichens. Another short
human winsome
chapter on uses of hchens uses photographs to
much most
the but of the chapter, like of the dia-
illustrate text,
The
grams book, has been served up previous works.
in the in
rewarming number
too-selective bibliography and the of a of old
(some of which were previously redrawn from
lichen illustrations
book
even earlier sources) provide further hints that this fails to
attain a certain hoped-for standard of scientific relevance. Tn all
fairness, should be noted that for the libraries of undergraduate
it
students and for an apparently growing audience of amateur
li-
book good
chenologists, the will provide a reference, or at least
a starting point.
Why
do authors classify the growth forms of lichens as
still
human
and Perhaps a need,
crustose, foliose, fruticose'.^ fulfills
it
articulated by Plato, to construct a world of ideals and essences.
and
Unfortunately, the organismic world defies such a construct,
when comes
more most organisms
lichens are frustrating than
it
to pigeonholing their morphological characteristics. Yet, co-au-
thor Brodo has attempted just In view of his wide experience
this.
more
with lichens, one wishes that he would have offered us a
we
perspective on lichen form, but are disappointed again
critical
by a facile account of the gross anatomy of lichens, and by the
authors' insistence on redrawing figures from earlier texts that are
own
was
Perhaps
perfectly accessible in their right. the intent to
attract future scholars to the lichen world. Perhaps the authors
who may
hoped engage an audience of amateurs lack access
to
to a good scientific library, but with the sumptuous photographs
we
found throughout the text, fear that Brodo and his co-authors
have gilded the would have been far better to the orig-
let
lily. It
own
photographs story of
inal, beautiful in this text tell their
form.
lichen
which
Sadly, abbreviation must suffice in this book, turns out
be more a digest of the North American lichens than a scientific
to
name
For example, to find the author of a of a species,
treatise.
which might give a serious student a handle on taxonomic con-
98 Rhodora
104
|Vol.
cepts and history, one has to dig throngh the index. That problem
surmountable with encnigh ambition and patience. Other omis-
is
more
sions are serious. Abbreviation, especially taxonomic ac-
in
counts, misleads readers by providing an incomplete of
picture
the extent and background of the species. The problem nowhere
is
more
palpable than the taxonomic section of book, where
in this
the authors have simply excluded hundreds of species from the
dichotomous keys and
their attendant descriptions. can only
1
speak to the veracity of treatment given the lichen family Cla-
my
which
doniaceae, has been focus of study for almost twenty
As
years. elsewhere the the photographs of Cladonia
in text,
li-
How-
chens and range from
their allies excellent to breathtaking.
new
by excluding over dozen
ever, a species his account, Bro-
in
C
do has taken us back taxonomically 1978, when verruculosa
to
was
recognized North American
as a distinct entity the lichen
in
The many
flora. insensitivity of excluding so species that have
been recognized since the 1970s inexcusable, notwithstand-
late
is
am
many
ing the fact that the author of of them! Other authors
I
of Chidonia and other genera were Brodo and
also ignored, but
his collaborators have provided little or no hint as to what else
They
there/' have apparently been about
is ''out selective their
maps
distribution as well. At least the Cladoniacae, seems
in
it
that the authors have chosen to ignore several recent accounts of
biogcography
the of the group.
It will be up to future generations of readers to fmd the lacunae
They mem-
book. may, however, be by
in this distracted trying to
''common names"
orize the specious, insulting have been
that
appended The
taxa described within. authors have done
to a real
disservice lichcnology by imposing cloying
to their appellations
on Need names ''pompon shadow ^^
readers. refer to the lichen,
1
foam
"changing
"finger-scale or earthscale" under-
lichen,'' to
stand the crust see on a rock? Does anyone's appreciation of
I
nature benefit from the authors' misleading anthropomorphisms
"rough
like eyelash lichen" or "split-peg soldiers"? Ultimately,
North Aiuerica
Lic/jcjis of a scientific disappointment. hasten
is
T
add everyone
to that not requires scientific accuracy to get a kick
out of nature. This handsome volume will be sure to delight the
who may
eye of anyone opens indeed
inspire further nature
It
it.
study, though large format would tend to take up too much
its
room
on a field trip. At just shy o[ seventy dollars the book a
is
who
and you buy someone
real bargain, suggest for likes
I
it
Book Review 99
2002]
more of Larger than a stocking-
than just pretty pictures nature.
and eminently more valuable, Lichens of North America
stuffer
soon take place as the foremost introductory text to the
will its
lichens of this continent. In spite of its shortcomings, it is sure
to find pkice on the shelves and in the laboratories of lichen-
its
around world.
oloeists the
—
Common-
Samucl Hammer, College of General Studies, 871
MA
Avenue, Boston Boston, 02215.
University,
w^ealth