Locality: Chapel Hill, Orange County (35.885160, -79.017450)

Abstract: As part of a baseline project to document the lichen biodiversity of the North Carolina Piedmont, the lichen biota of Mason Farm Biological Reserve (MFBR) at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was inventoried in 2007 via a survey of permanent 0.1 ha vegetation plots in two distinct Piedmont forest communities: Basic Oak-Hickory Forest with diabase outcrops, and Piedmont/Mountain Swamp Forest lacking outcrops. Plots yielded 34–56 species each, with a total of 104 taxa. Twenty-six species are considered common to MFBR, and 14 taxa are newly reported for the North Carolina Piedmont. Beta diversities were calculated using Jaccard indices (J) to assess similarities in species composition of lichen communities within and between the two forest types as well as a larger scale comparison between the MBFR lichen biota in toto and that of William B. Umstead State Park (WIUM), a recently surveyed Piedmont forested area in Mixed Mesic Hardwood Forest with granitic outcrops. Within MFBR results included low to moderate similarity indices (J 5 0.00–0.51) with the highest found between each forest’s canopy; a moderate similarity was also detected between the MFBR in toto and WIUM. Differences in lichen communities and larger biotas are likely explained by substrate and environmental variability. Plot canopy cover was measured and correlated against lichen data, resulting in a negative correlation with summer shade and midbole lichen spp. Descriptions of the lichen communities within MFBR’s two forests are presented.

Notes: This checklist is updated from that published to include any annotations and new reports.